Elmore
Phyllis Biffle Elmore was raised by her grandmother Lula Horn (1883-1988), in rural Alabama during the mid 1950’s and 1960’s. Her book Quilt of Souls: A Memoir, is dedicated to the memory of her grandmother; a quilter and storyteller who only made quilts from the clothing of people who had passed on. Her quilts were […]
Arsenault
Kerri Arsenault is a literary critic, director and co-founder of The Environmental Storytelling Studio (TESS), and author of Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains. Her writing has been published in the Boston Globe, The Paris Review, the New York Review of Books, Freeman’s, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. In 2025, Kerri will […]
Francis
John Francis, Ph.D., is known the world over as the Planetwalker. In 1971, Francis witnessed an oil spill in San Francisco Bay. The effects of the oil pollution compelled him to stop using motorized vehicles. Several months later, to end the arguments he found himself getting into about the power of one person’s actions, he […]
De Leon
Born in the Boston area to Guatemalan parents, Jennifer De Leon is the author of the novel Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From (published by Simon & Schuster/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books in 2020) and the essay collection White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, and Writing (winner of the Juniper Prize and published by UMass Press in 2021). She is also […]
Bassist
Elissa Bassist is an award-deserving author, humor writer, teacher, speaker, and editor of the “Funny Women” column on The Rumpus. As a founding contributor to The Rumpus, she’s written cultural, feminist, and personal criticism since the website launched in 2009. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Mother Jones, Creative Nonfiction, […]
Shipman
Wade Rouse is the USA TODAY, Publishers Weekly and internationally bestselling author of 17 books, including five memoirs and ten novels. His new novel, The Page Turner, will publish next spring from HarperCollins. Wade’s books have been translated into nearly 25 languages and have been bestsellers across the world. His novel, The Secret of Snow, […]
Bee
Vanessa A. Bee is a consumer protection lawyer interested in inequality and corporate power, a memoir author, and an essayist. Born in Cameroon, she grew up in France, England, and the United States. Vanessa’s book, Home Bound: An Uprooted Daughter’s Reflections on Belonging, is an experimental memoir that reflects on a childhood spanning across three […]
Lee
Julia Lee is a Korean American writer, scholar, and teacher. She is the author of Our Gang: A Racial History of The Little Rascals and The American Slave Narrative and the Victorian Novel, as well as the novel, By The Book, which was published under the pen name Julia Sonneborn. She is an associate professor of English at Loyola Marymount University, where […]
Kirkwood
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Kathlyn J Kirkwood is the author of Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round: the Story of an Everyday Activist and the Making of the Martin Luther King Holiday. A retired college professor, Kathlyn focuses on writing for children and volunteering with under-priveleged 3rd and 4th grade students in the […]
Leon
Jesse Leon, a multilingual force in the world of motivational speaking, is the award-winning author of “I’m Not Broken” and its Spanish edition, “No Estoy Roto”, both released by Penguin Random House. These memoirs illuminate his triumphant journey from the shadows of human trafficking to the revered halls of Harvard University, where he secured a […]