Connecticut's Largest Annual Literary Festival

Jennifer Baker is an author, editor, writing instructor, and creator of the Minorities in Publishing podcast. She’s been a recipient of NYSCA/NYFA and Queens Council on the Arts grants, a 2024 Axinn Writing Award, and was named the Publishers Weekly Star Watch SuperStar in 2019. She edited the short story anthology Everyday People: The Color of Life (2018) and is the author of Forgive Me Not (2023) a 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, an NYPL 2023 Best Book for Teens, and 2023 Best of the Best by the BCALA. Her website is jennifernbaker.com. 

Kirsten Bakis is the author of two novels. King Nyx is "a novel of delicious disquiet" (Victor LaValle) and "a smart and engaging literary thriller [...] almost impossible to put down." (Kirkus). In his introduction to the 20th anniversary edition of her first novel, Jeff VanderMeer called Lives of the Monster Dogs "undeniably. . . a classic."

Bakis is recipient of multiple awards, including a Michener-Copernicus Society of America Grant, Whiting Foundation Award, and a Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant. Writing in the Washington Post, Jacob Brogan called Bakis "a major talent, a writer of prodigious commitment, capability and imagination." She is a resident faculty member at the Yale Writers’ Workshop and lives in New York's lower Hudson Valley.

Julia Bartz is the New York Times best-selling author of The Writing Retreat, a practicing therapist, and a creative coach. Her fiction writing has appeared in The South Dakota Review, InDigest Magazine, and more. She lives in Brooklyn. Connect with her on social media: @JuliaBartz.

Jedediah Berry is the author of a novel, The Manual of Detection, and a story in cards, The Family Arcana. He lives in Western Massachusetts. Together with his partner, writer Emily Houk, he runs Ninepin Press, an independent publisher of fiction, poetry, and games in unusual shapes.

Marcia Bradley, moved from LA to earn her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College in 2017. She received a Bronx Council on the Arts/New York City BRIO Award for Fiction, was a Pushcart nominee in 2022, and her writing has appeared in The Chicago Review of Books, The Capital Gazette, and many other publications. She has received scholarships to Ragdale, Community of Writers, and Eckerd College Writers’ residencies. Marcia teaches adult writers at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. Her debut novel, The Home for Wayward Girls, a deep dive into the Troubled Teen Industry, was published by HarperCollins in 2023 and was on “Goodreads 105 of the buzziest novels of 2023 list.” https://marciabradley.com/

Jamie Brenner is the bestselling author of eight novels including The Forever Summer and Blush. She grew up in suburban Philadelphia on a steady diet of fiction and soap operas, then moved to New York City where she worked in book publishing and fashion. After raising two daughters in Manhattan, Jamie has returned to her hometown and spends her summers visiting the beaches that inspire her novels. Her new book, A Novel Summer, was published on July 16, 2024 with HarperCollins/Park Row Books.

Clay McLeod Chapman is the author of the novels Whisper Down the Lane, The Remaking, and Miss Corpus; short story collections Nothing Untoward, Commencement and Rest Area, and Middle Grade series: Homeroom Headhunters, Camp Cannibal and Academic Assassins. Ghost Eaters, a new supernatural horror novel, will scare the pants off you. His most recent novel is What Kind of Mother. Chapman authored the Marvel series Scream: Curse of Carnage. He has written Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety, Iron Fist: Phantom Limb, Typhoid Fever, as well as for Edge of Spider-Verse and Venomverse among others.

Chapman created The Pumpkin Pie Show, which has been performed at the Romanian Theatre Festival of Sibiu, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, Winnipeg Fringe Festival, Edmonton Fringe Festival, Minnesota Fringe Festival, and more.

Chapman studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Burren College of Art, and Sarah Lawrence College. He currently teaches writing at The Actors Studio MFA Program at Pace University

Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, P. Djèlí Clark (he/him) spent the formative years of his life in the homeland of his parents, Trinidad and Tobago. He is the author of the novel A Master of Djinn and the novellas Ring Shout, The Black God’s Drums, and The Haunting of Tram Car 015. He has won the Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards and been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Sturgeon Awards. His stories have appeared in online venues such as Tor.com, Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Apex, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and in print anthologies, including Griots, Hidden Youth, and Clockwork Cairo. He is also a founding member of FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons.

May Cobb is an award-winning author of The Hunting Wives, My Summer Darlings, A Likeable Woman, and Big Woods. Her books have received attention from Book of The Month, The Today Show, and Oprah Daily, and have been optioned for film/TV. She has an MA from San Francisco State University and her essays and interviews have appeared in The Washington Post and Good Housekeeping. She currently lives in Austin with her family. Her novel The Hunting Wives is soon to be a series on STARZ.

Bryan Ripley Crandall, Ph.D. is Director of the Connecticut Writing Project and Professor of English Education and Literacy at Fairfield University. He publishes widely about young adult literature, youth literacies, activity theory, and conducting professional development in schools. His teacher institutes and Young Adult Literacy Labs have won numerous awards, including the most recent 2025 Divergent Award for Literacy Implementation from the Initiative for Literacy in a Digital Age. He co-hosts National Writing Project’s The Write Time, a video podcast that brings together teachers to interview authors of children’s and young adult literature and can be reached at bcrandall@fairfield.edu.

Kathy Curto teaches at Montclair State University and The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College,  as well as several nonprofit organizations and writing centers in the New York metropolitan area. She is the author of Not for Nothing-Glimpses into a Jersey Girlhood. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, on NPR, in the anthology Listen to Your Mother:  What She Said Then, What We’re Saying Now, and in Barrelhouse, The Inquisitive Eater, Memoir Magazine, Oh Reader, The Mom Egg Review, Drift and Talking Writing among others. Kathy’s piece, “Still Cooking Side by Side” considered a “Modern Love in miniature” by The New York Times, was included in The Best of Tiny Love Stories in August 2021. She is co-founder of Key to the Castle Workshop and serves on the board of the Italian American Writers Association. Kathy lives with her family in the Hudson Valley.  Please visit: www.kathycurto.com. 

Cody Daigle-Orians (they/them) is a writer and asexuality educator living in Columbus, Ohio. They are the creator of Ace Dad Advice, a social media-based asexuality education project designed to support people exploring asexuality or questioning their sexual orientation. They are the author of the young adult books I Am Ace: Advice on Living Your Best Asexual Life, and The Ace and Aro Relationship Guide. They are also a contributor to the 2024 Lambda Literary Award finalist anthology Being Ace. They are a 2024 Lambda Literary Fellow, and they were nominated for a 2023 British LGBTQ Award for Online Influencer. They are queer, ace, and agender. 

Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for over four decades. She was Fiction Editor of OMNI Magazine for 17 years, then Editor of SciFiction, the fiction arm of the SciFi Channel’s website for six years. She currently acquires short stories for Reactor, and novellas for Tor.com and its horror imprint, Nightfire. She runs the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in the east village, NYC, with Matthew Kressel. She can be found on the website Datlow.com, and on Twitter and Facebook. 

T.M. Dunn is the author of three novels, Her Father's Daughter (Crooked Lane, July 2023), Last Stop On The 6 (Bordighera Press, 2021,) and Sourcebooks Rebels By Accident (Sourcebooks, 2014). She has served as Senior Director of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, where she holds an MFA in creative writing. Dunn is a co-founder and lead instructor of Key to the Castle workshops in Cetara, Italy, as well as the co-host of the Westport Library's podcast, Go Ahead, Write Something. She lives in Stamford, Connecticut, where she is currently working on her next novel, with her rescue puppy Blanqui snuggled at her side. 

Sarah Beth Durst is the author of more than 25 fantasy books for adults, teens, and kids, including The Queens of Renthia series, Drink Slay Love, and Spark. She has won an American Library Association Alex Award and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and has been a finalist for the Andre Norton Nebula Award three times. She lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat. 

Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. She also has a newsletter, The Audacity, and once had a podcast, The Roxane Gay Agenda. 

Widely quoted in The New York Times and more, Galia Gichon spent nearly ten years writing financial research for top investment banks before launching Down-to-Earth Finance, a top personal financial advising firm in New York.

Galia is the author of My Money Matters, a personal finance book which received notable press from the New York Times, TODAY Show, CNN, Newsweek, Real Simple and more. Galia Gichon consistently leads seminars for Barnard College where she has taught for 13 years, and other organizations. She is an avid angel investor focusing on women-led and impact startups and actively counsels startups through accelerators.

https://www.galiagichonauthor.com/

Christopher Golden is the New York Times best-selling author of such novels as The House of Last Resort, All Hallows, Road of Bones, and the Stoker Award-winning Ararat, among many others. Golden co-created (with Mike Mignola) the fan favorite comic book series Baltimore and Joe Golem: Occult Detective. He has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, and the online animated series Ghosts of Albion (with Amber Benson). His work has been nominated for the British Fantasy Award, the Eisner Award, and multiple Shirley Jackson Awards. He has been nominated eleven times in eight different categories for the Bram Stoker Award and has won twice. In 2023, Golden and Amber Benson co-wrote and co-directed the Audible Original podcast Slayers: A Buffyverse Story. Please visit him at http://www.christophergolden.com. 

Charnaie Gordon is a Pre-K Educator, Diversity and Inclusion Advocate, author of several children's picture books, Digital Creator, and Founder of a 501c3 non-profit organization, 50 States 50 Books, Inc.  She is also an active member of The Society for Diversity and previously served as a member of the National Advisory Board for Reading is Fundamental for their Race, Equity and Inclusion (REI) initiative.    
 
More than anything else, Charnaie cares about connecting people with great books they'll love. In her world, books are an absolute necessity.  She is passionate about instilling a love of reading, lifelong learning and curiosity in her kids and she hopes to inspire others to do the same with their children. Find her online at hereweeread.com and @hereweeread on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. 
 

Nicola Harrison is the author of three historical fiction novels, Montauk, The Show Girl and Hotel Laguna. Born and raised in England, she moved with her family to Southern California when she was 14. She is a graduate of UCLA and received her MFA from Stony Brook University. Prior to writing novels, she worked as a fashion journalist in New York City, where she lived for 17 years. She now resides in Manhattan Beach, California, with her husband, two sons, and a high-maintenance chihuahua named Lily. 

Rachel Harrison is the national best-selling author of So Thirsty, Black Sheep, Such Sharp Teeth, and The Return, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, as an Audible Original, and in her debut story collection Bad Dolls. She lives in Western New York with her husband and their cat/overlord. 

Jimin Han is the author of The Apology, a Barnes and Noble Discover Pick; named a best audiobook of the year by Booklist, a best book of the summer by the LA Times, Vanity Fair, Shondaland, Apple Books and more. She is also the author of A Small Revolution. Born in Seoul, South Korea, she grew up in Providence, Rhode Island; Dayton, Ohio; and Jamestown, New York. Her work has been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. https://www.jiminhan.net/ 

Photo credit if you're able to include: Christine Petrella 

Isi Hendrix is a Nigerian American children’s book author who has been lucky enough to live and work all over the world, from the Himalayas to the Amazon rainforest, during her past life as an anthropologist. Now she’s based in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, where she lives with a rotating roster of foster kittens and a stubborn refusal to accept that she is highly allergic to cats. Her middle grade debut, Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans, was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work-Youth/Teens, received a starred review from American Library Association, and was selected as a 2024 Bank Street Best Children's Books of the Year. The sequel, Adia Kelbara and the High Queen’s Tomb, will be out next year. 

Hal Johnson is the author of several books, including the comparatively well-received Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods. Please invite him to your science fiction convention or competitive tea-tasting.

Gabino Iglesias is a writer, professor, book reviewer, editor, and translator living in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Zero Saints and Coyote Songs, and the editor of Both Sides. His work has been translated into five languages, optioned for film, nominated to the Bram Stoker Award and the Locus Award and won the Wonderland Book Award for Best Novel in 2019. His reviews appear regularly in publications such as NPR, Los Angeles Review of Books, San Francisco Chronicle, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Criminal Element, Mystery Tribune, and others. He has been a juror for the Shirley Jackson Awards twice, the Newfound Prose Prize, the Splatterpunk Awards, and PANK Magazine's Big Book Contest. He teaches creative writing at SNHU's online MFA program and runs a series of low-cost writing workshops. 

Elise Hart Kipness is a television sports reporter turned crime fiction author. Her debut novel, Lights Out, is an Amazon bestseller and a Men’s Journal Top 10 Book of 2023. 

The second novel in the series, Dangerous Play, comes out September 24, 2024.  Like her main character, Elise chased marquee athletes through the tunnels of Madison Square Garden and stood before glaring lights reporting to national audiences. Across her sports career, Elise covered the Olympics, NBA Finals, March Madness, World Series and US Opens (Golf & Tennis). She has interviewed many marquee athletes including the Williams sisters, Patrick Ewing, Mia Hamm, Derek Jeter and Tiger Woods. 

A graduate of Brown University, Elise was also a news reporter for WNBC-TV, News 12 Long Island and the Associated Press, where she covered the trial of serial killer Joel Rifkin, the LIRR massacre trial and the Flight 800 crash. Now as an author, Elise fuses her passion for true crime and sports with the Kate Green series. 

 Elise lives with her husband and their three labradoodles, splitting their time between Stamford, Connecticut and Key West, Florida. In addition to writing, Elise is president of Sisters in Crime Connecticut and a Board member of the Friends of Key West Library. 

Chris Knapp’s work has appeared in print in The Paris Review and the New England Review, and online at Granta and n+1, among others. He has been a work-study scholar at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and earned an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Virginia. Knapp’s novel, States of Emergency, is his first with Unnamed Press. He teaches in the journalism program at the Sorbonne. 

K’wan has become one of the most beloved, iconic Black writers of the last two decades with his artful, suspenseful storytelling and over a million books in print. He has penned over two dozen best-selling novels, including the widely popular Animal series, as well as The Reluctant King, Black Lotus, and Black Lotus 2: The Vow. K’wan’s writing has been featured in Vibe, Pages, King, Library Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and Time, to name a few. He was the recipient of the Street Lit Book Award Medal in adult fiction in 2012 and 2013 for Eviction Notice and Animal and has been a recurring guest on TV One’s Celebrity Crime Files. His latest work is False Idols, a stand-alone sequel to The Reluctant King. 

Ryan La Sala writes about surreal things happening to queer people. He is the author behind the luminous and terrifying best-selling horror novel The Honeys, which is in development to become a major motion picture with Anonymous Content, and the highly anticipated supernatural thriller Beholder. His previous titles include Reverie and Be Dazzled, both of which made the Kids’ Indie Next List. He has been featured in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and NPR. Ryan is the host of the infamous Bad Author Book Club Podcast, and a frequent speaker at events/conferences. When not writing, Ryan does arts & crafts, supervised by his cat, Haunted Little Girl. 

Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale has written novels and stories in many genres, including western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense. He has also written for comics as well as "Batman: The Animated Series." As of 2020, he has written 50 novels and published more than 30 short-story collections, along with many chapbooks and comic-book adaptations. His stories have won ten Bram Stoker Awards. a British Fantasy Award, an Edgar Award, a World Horror Convention Grand Master Award, a Sugarprize, a Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature, a Spur Award, and a Raymond Chandler Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been inducted into The Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and several of his novels have been adapted to film. 

Eric LaRocca (he/they) is a 2x Bram Stoker Award® finalist and Splatterpunk Award winner. Named by Esquire as one of the “Writers Shaping Horror’s Next Golden Age” and praised by Locus as “one of strongest and most unique voices in contemporary horror fiction,” LaRocca’s notable works include Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Everything the Darkness Eats, The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories, and You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood. His upcoming novel, At Dark, I Become Loathsome, will be published in January 2025. The book has already been optioned for film by The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus. He currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts with his partner. 

Lynda Cohen Loigman graduated from Harvard College and Columbia Law School. Her debut novel, The Two-Family House, was a USA Today best seller and a nominee for the Goodreads 2016 Choice Awards in Historical Fiction. Her second novel, The Wartime Sisters, was selected as a Woman's World Book Club pick and a Best Book of 2019 by Real Simple Magazine. Her most recent book, The Matchmaker’s Gift, was named a Best New Book by People Magazine and a Best Book of Fall by The New York Post, Parade Magazine, Buzzfeed, and Good Morning America. The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern, her fourth novel, will be published by St. Martin’s Press this October. 

Bracken MacLeod is the Bram Stoker, Splatterpunk, and Shirley Jackson Award nominated author of the novels, is the author of the novels, Mountain Home, Stranded, Come to Dust, and Closing Costs. His short fiction has appeared in several magazines and anthologies including LampLight, ThugLit, and Splatterpunk, and has been collected in White Knight and Other Pawns and 13 Views of the Suicide Woods, described as “superb” by the New York Times Book Review. Before devoting himself to full time writing, he worked as a civil and criminal litigator, a university philosophy instructor, and a martial arts teacher. He lives outside of Boston with his wife and son, where he is at work on his next novel. 

Torrey Maldonado was born and raised in the Red Hook projects of Brooklyn, New York. He has taught for New York City public schools for around 30 years and his fast paced, compelling stories are inspired by his and his students’ experiences. His popular novels Hands, Tight, and What Lane? are Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections. Hands is a Global Read Aloud winner, a Christopher Award winner, voted Best Book of the Year on numerous state lists, a Jane Addams Book Award finalist, a starred School Library Journal book, and won amazing reviews from Horn Book, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly; Tight won the Christopher Award, was an ALA Notable Book, and an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year; What Lane? garnered many starred reviews and was cited by Oprah and the New York Times for being an essential book to discuss racism and allyship; and his very first novel, Secret Saturdays, has been in print for over ten years. He has contributed to award-winning anthologies. Learn more at torreymaldonado.com or connect on social media @torreymaldonado. 

Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. A recipient of the Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her family. 

GennaRose Nethercott is the author of a novel, Thistlefoot, and a book-length poem, The Lumberjack’s Dove, which was selected by Louise Glück as a winner of the National Poetry Series. A writer and folklorist alike, she helps create the podcast Lore, and she tours nationally and internationally performing strange tales (sometimes with puppets in tow). Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart — her latest book — marks her debut into short fiction. She lives in the woodlands of Vermont, beside an old cemetery. 

Anna Noyes’ debut novel, The Blue Maiden, was published by Grove Atlantic on May 14, 2024. Her short story collection Goodnight, Beautiful Women, was a finalist for the Story Prize and the New England Book Award, as well as a New York Times Editors' Choice, Indie Next Pick, and Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her writing has appeared in Vice, A Public Space, LitHub, Electric Literature, and Guernica, among others. She has received the Lotos Foundation Prize, the Henfield Prize, and residencies from MacDowell, Yaddo, Lighthouse Works, the James Merrill House, and Aspen Words. She lives in New York. 

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of many works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, including Joyce Carol Oates: Letters to a Biographer (edited by Greg Johnson) and the novel Broke Heart Blues. She is the editor of New Jersey Noir, Prison Noir, A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers, and Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers. Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award, PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Humanities Medal, and a World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey. 

Patricia Park is a tenured professor of creative writing at American University, a Fulbright Scholar in Creative Arts, and a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. Her debut YA novel, Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim, received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal and was an NPR Book of the Day. Her acclaimed adult novel Re Jane was named an Editors’ Choice by the New York Times Book Review; the winner of an American Library Association award; an O, The Oprah Magazine pick; and an NPR Fresh Air pick, among other honors. What’s Eating Jackie Oh? is inspired by her love of watching competitive TV cooking shows and creating somewhat edible meals from leftovers. It was also inspired by Patricia’s New York Times op-ed, I’m Done Being Your Model Minority. Patricia’s writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Guardian, Salon, and others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. 

Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award–winning author. Her novels include Children of Chicago and The Shoemaker’s Magician. In addition to writing genre-blending novels that incorporate elements of fairy tales, mystery, detective, crime, and horror, Pelayo has written numerous short stories and the poetry collection Crime Scene. The recipient of the 2021 International Latino Book Award, she holds a Master of Fine Arts in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives in Chicago with her family. For more information, visit www.cinapelayo.com. 

Amy Poeppel is the award-winning author of the novels The Sweet Spot, Musical Chairs, Limelight, and Small Admissions. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, and Working Mother. She and her husband have three sons and split their time between New York City, Germany, and Connecticut. 

Courtney Preiss was born in Brooklyn and raised in New Jersey off the same Highway 9 Bruce Springsteen sings about on "Born to Run." She graduated from Emerson College with a BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing. She lives in Asbury Park, New Jersey, with her husband and their rescue dog, Barry. Her debut novel Welcome Home, Caroline Kline was an instant USA Today best-sellers. 

Lisa Korsten Price is a children’s book author, with her debut book, The Treehouse on Maple Lane, co-authored with Anne Burmeister. In addition to writing, Lisa is an attorney and also volunteers for several non-profits and community organizations. She lives in Westport, CT with her husband Jeremy, their 2 children and their labradoodle. 

Oliver Radclyffe is part of the new wave of transgender writers unafraid to address the complex nuances of transition, examining the places where gender identity, sexual orientation, feminist allegiance, social class, and family history overlap. His work has appeared in The New York Times and Electric Literature, he recently published Adult Human Male, a monograph with Unbound Edition Press about the trans experience under the cisgender gaze, and his memoir, Frighten the Horses, is due out with Roxane Gay Books in September. He currently lives on the Connecticut coast, where he is raising his four children. 

Ainissa Ramirez, Ph.D. is an award-winning scientist and science communicator, who is passionate about getting the general public excited about science. A graduate of Brown University, she earned her doctorate in materials science and engineering from Stanford. Dr. Ramirez started her career as a scientist at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and later worked as an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Yale. She authored the books The Alchemy of Us and Save Our Science, and co-authored Newton’s Football. She has written for Forbes, Time, The Atlantic, Scientific American, American Scientist, and Science and has explained science headlines on CBS, CNN, NPR, ESPN, and PBS. 

Melissa Rivero is the author of The Affairs of the Falcóns, which won the 2019 New American Voices Award and a 2020 International Latino Book Award. The book was also longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her most recent novel, Flores and Miss Paula, is a finalist for the Gotham Book Prize. Born in Lima, Peru and raised in Brooklyn, she is a graduate of NYU and Brooklyn Law School, where she was an editor of the Brooklyn Law Review. She lives in New York City with her family. is the author of The Affairs of the Falcóns, which won the 2019 New American Voices Award and a 2020 International Latino Book Award. The book was also longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her most recent novel, Flores and Miss Paula, is a finalist for the Gotham Book Prize. Born in Lima, Peru and raised in Brooklyn, she is a graduate of NYU and Brooklyn Law School, where she was an editor of the Brooklyn Law Review. She lives in New York City with her family.

Shannon C.F. Rogers is a multiracial American writer of Filipinx and European descent. Her debut novel, I’d Rather Burn Than Bloom, won the 2024 APALA Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature. A former editor on Lunch Ticket, Shannon's writing has appeared in Bodega Magazine and Newfound Journal as well as on stage with Tricklock Company, Lady Luck Productions, and the UNM Words Afire Festival of New Plays. Her second novel, Eighteen Roses, comes out July 2024. 

Shannon earned her B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico and her MFA in Writing For Young People at Antioch University Los Angeles. She has served as an educator, after-school program director, and lost mitten finder at schools in Albuquerque, Chicago, and New York City. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. 

Hugh Ryan is a writer, curator, and most recently, the author of The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison, which won the Israel Fishman Stonewall Book Award from American Library Association and the biennial William A. Percy award from the Warren Johansson Foundation. His first book, When Brooklyn Was Queer, won a 2020 New York City Book Award, was a New York Times Editors' Choice in 2019, and was a finalist for the Randy Shilts and Lambda Literary Awards. He was honored with the 2020 Allan Berube Prize from the American Historical Association. 

Susie Orman Schnall is the author of five novels about ambitious women: Anna Bright Is Hiding Something, We Came Here to Shine, The Subway Girls, The Balance Project, and On Grace. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, HuffPost, PopSugar, Writer’s Digest, Harper's Bazaar, and Glamour. She’s also a screenwriter currently shopping her first pilot and feature-length screenplay. A mother of three grown sons, Susie was born in Philadelphia, grew up in Los Angeles, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and now lives with her husband in New York. When she's not reading or writing, you can find her pretending to be a graphic designer on Canva, doing a crossword puzzle, or hiking to the top of a mountain. 

Peng Shepherd was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and has lived in Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, London, New York, and Mexico City.  Her second novel, The Cartographers, became a national best-seller, was named a Best Book of 2022 by The Washington Post, and received a 2020 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her debut, The Book of M, won the 2019 Neukom Institute for Literary Arts Award for Debut Speculative Fiction, and was chosen as a best book of the year by Amazon, Elle, Refinery29, and The Verge, as well as a best book of the summer by The Today Show and NPR’s On Point. 

Diana Sussman is an author and creator in various mediums from Fairfield County, Connecticut. Her middle-grade mystery novel The Neighbors' Secret was recognized as a Tassy Walden Finalist in 2023, and the book has been named a finalist in Pre-Teen Fiction in American Book Fest’s 2024 American Fiction Awards.

Her first play, Fickle Fate, was selected out of over 300 submissions as a semi-finalist in the SheNYC and SheLA Summer Theater Festival in 2022. In 2024, Sussman co-wrote the musical Virtually Ours, which was showcased as part of the NYC Sparks Theater Festival for Emerging Artists.

Her website is dianasussmanwrites.com and you can follow her on the socials at @dianasussmanwrites. Sussman's publisher is EverImagine Books, an imprint of Harbor Lane Books.

Karen L. Swanson is the author of an award-winning blog and two health cookbooks. An avid athlete with decades of experience on and at baseball fields, she is inspired by women who break barriers in the medical, business, and sports worlds. Karen worked in product marketing at Pfizer and Procter & Gamble before becoming a writer, and she holds an MBA from Harvard University. 

Brian Walker has a diverse background in professional cartooning and cartoon scholarship.  He is a founder and former director of the Museum of Cartoon Art, where he worked from 1974 to 1992.  Since 1984, he has been part of the creative team that produces the comic strips, Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois. He has written, edited or contributed to 45 books on cartoon art, including the definitive history, The Comics – The Complete Collection published by Abrams ComicArts. He taught a course in cartoon history at the School of Visual Arts from 1995 to 1996.  He has served as curator for 75 cartoon exhibitions including The Sunday Funnies: 100 Years of Comics in American Life at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 100 Years of American Comics at the Belgian Center for Comic Art in Brussels, Masters of American Comics at the Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and George Herriman – Krazy Kat is Krazy Kat is Krazy Kat at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.  He was Editor-in-Chief of Collectors’ Showcase magazine from 1997 to 2000 and is the founder and current chairman of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society.

Caroline Wolff is a writer and editor. She holds an MFA in Fiction from New York University, where she also taught undergraduate creative writing. She lives in downtown Manhattan.