All Sackett Street instructors are professional writers, teachers and editors, who have taught at major universities and have earned MFA degrees at the most prestigious graduate writing programs in the country. More importantly, they are the most dedicated of writing instructors because teaching the craft of writing is what they love to do.
Julia Fierro, founder & director
Julia Fierro is the author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer and Cutting Teeth. She is one half of Cassidy Lucas, pen name of writing duo Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson Widger. Santa Monica, their first book together, was published by Harper in October 2020. Their second novel, The Last Party, set in Topanga Canyon on the westside of Los Angeles, was published in April 2022.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Julia founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, now a creative home to over 8,000 writers and named “New York City’s best writing class” by Time Out New York, the L Magazine, and Brooklyn Magazine; and a “Top Alternative to MFA programs” by Poets & Writers. Workshops are offered throughout NYC and online. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Buzzfeed, Glamour, Psychology Today, and other publications, and she has been profiled in The Observer and The Economist.
Julia has been an editor and writing coach since 2003, providing in-depth developmental feedback for authors of literary and commercial fiction. Books that she has worked on include books published by Penguin Random House, Riverhead, Simon and Schuster, Viking, Scribner, Harper Collins, Little A, Houghton Mifflin and more. She has traveled nationwide to give talks about writing, the teaching of writing, crafting creative communities, and publishing. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and her father/gardening partner.
Siobhan Adcock
Siobhan Adcock is a novelist, essayist, humor writer, and editor based in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She is the author of two novels, The Completionist (Simon & Schuster, 2018) and The Barter (Dutton, 2014), as well as two humor books. Her short fiction has been published in Triquarterly and The Massachusetts Review, and her essays and humor writing have appeared in Salon, Slate, The Daily Beast, Ms., Medium, and the Chicago Review of Books. She has taught writing classes and workshops at the Columbia Publishing Course, the Gotham Writers Workshop, Cornell University, and the Auburn Federal Correctional Facility, as well as for Voices from War, a nonprofit writing program serving military and service families. For many (many) years she has worked in digital and print publishing, putting in time at Random House, HarperCollins, Conde Nast, the XO Group, Time Inc., and most recently at Everyday Health Media.
Natalie Adler
Natalie Adler‘s novel, WAITING ON A FRIEND, will be published by Hogarth Books in 2026.
Natalie is an editor at ReadLux, was a Center for Fiction Emerging Writer in 2022-2023, earned her PhD at Brown in Comparative Literature, and her MFA at Brooklyn College. Her fiction and essays have been published widely.
Cinelle Barnes
Cinelle Barnes is a formerly undocumented memoirist, essayist, and educator from Manila, Philippines, and is the author of MONSOON MANSION: A MEMOIR (Little A, 2018, Booklist starred review) and MALAYA: ESSAYS ON FREEDOM (Little A, 2019), and the editor of the New York Times New & Noteworthy book, A MEASURE OF BELONGING: 21 WRITERS OF COLOR ON THE NEW AMERICAN SOUTH (Hub City Press, 2020).
Cinelle earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Converse College. Her writing has appeared or been featured in the New York Times, Longreads, Garden & Gun, Electric Literature, Buzzfeed Reader, Literary Hub, Hyphen, and CNN Philippines, among others. Her essay, “Carefree White Girls, Careful Brown Girls”, is anthologized in A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home.
Cinelle’s work has received fellowships and grants from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, VONA, Kundiman, the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund, the Lowcountry Quarterly Arts Grant, and Capita. Her debut memoir was listed as a Best Nonfiction Book of 2018 by Bustle and nominated for the 2018 Reading Women Nonfiction Award. She is the 2021 Vulgar Geniuses Nonfiction Honorary Awardee for her writing and social justice work and 2021 writer-in-residence at Pasadena City College, and was a Focus Fellowship artist-in-residence at AIR Serenbe in 2020, a short-term writer-in-residence at City of Asylum in 2019, and the 2018-19 writer-in-residence at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston, SC, where she and her family live.
She is currently at work on a narrative nonfiction book on climate justice, the Philippine water crisis, and Philippine spirituality and folklore.
Jensen Beach
Jensen Beach is the author of two story collections, the forthcoming SWALLOWED BY THE COLD (Graywolf), and FOR OUT OF THE HEART PROCEED (Dzanc Books 2012, 2nd Edition; 1st Edition: Dark Sky Books). He holds an MFA in fiction from the Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as well as an MA and BA in English from Stockholm University. He teaches in the BFA program at Johnson State College, where he also is the fiction editor of Green Mountains Review. He’s also a faculty member in the MFA Program in Writing & Publishing at VCFA. His writing has appeared recently in A Public Space, Cincinnati Review, Fifty-Two Stories, Ninth Letter, Sou’wester, Witness, and The New Yorker, and online at Tin House, N+1, Kenyon Review, and American Short Fiction, among others. He’s received scholarships from the Napa and Sewanee Writers’ conferences, and is one of the webeditors at Hobart. He lives in Vermont.
Jamel Brinkley
Jamel Brinkley is the author of A Lucky Man: Stories (Graywolf Press/A Public Space Books). His fiction has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The Best American Short Stories 2018, A Public Space, Ploughshares, Gulf Coast, The Threepenny Review, Glimmer Train, American Short Fiction, Epiphany, and LitMag. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he was also the 2016-17 Carol Houck Smith Fiction Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. His work has received support from Kimbilio Fiction, the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, the Tin House Summer Workshop, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Beginning this fall, he will be a 2018-2020 Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University.
Alexandra Butler
Alexandra Butler is the author of Walking the Night Road, a memoir published by Columbia University Press, and a book of poems, Circling the Same, published by Moran Moran. She has written for the New York Times and the Times Literary Supplement. Alex co-wrote two short films, Ivy Holland, produced by Tribeca Films, and The Song is You, featured in The New Yorker magazine’s Screening Room Series. She works as a script consultant in both film and the art world. She is currently at work on a novel titled Bone Break Marble and a collection of short stories. You can read more about her in The New York Times: Introducing a Poet Who Works in 3-D. Alex holds a Master of Social Work from Columbia University and is a therapist in a bilingual group practice in her hometown of New York City.
Meg Charlton
Meg Charlton is a writer based in New York City. Her debut novel VOYAGERS is forthcoming from Harper. Meg’s work has appeared in The Yale Review, Slate, Lux, Atlas Obscura and Vice, and the anthology Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us. Her writing has been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and covered in Indiewire, Above the Law, and Australian National Radio’s Future Tense. She holds an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College.
Maisy Card
Maisy Card is the author of the debut novel These Ghosts are Family is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster in March 2020. Her writing has appeared in Lenny Letter, School Library Journal, Agni, Sycamore Review, Liars’ League NYC, and Ampersand Review. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Maisy was born in St. Catherine, Jamaica, but was raised in Queens, New York. She earned an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College, an MLIS from Rutgers University and a BA in English and American Studies from Wesleyan University. She currently lives in Newark, NJ where she works as a public librarian.
Madeleine Crum
Madeleine Crum is a writer and editor living in New York by way of Texas. Her recent fiction, narrative nonfiction, and criticism can be found in The Baffler, The Washington Post, Vulture, Vice, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Triangle House, and Joyland Magazine, where she’s an editor for the Northeast section. She teaches writing at The School of the New York Times and Brooklyn College, where she received an MFA in Fiction and the Himan Brown Creative Writing Award.
Heidi Diehl
Heidi Diehl’s debut novel, Lifelines, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in June 2019. Her short fiction has appeared in Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, Mississippi Review, StoryQuarterly, Witnes
Elyssa East
Elyssa East received her B.A. in art history from Reed College and her M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town, Elyssa’s first book, won the 2010 L. L. Winship/P.E.N. New England Award in non-fiction. A Boston Globe Bestseller, Dogtown is an Editors’ Choice selection from The New York Times Book Review and was named a “Must-Read Book” by the Massachusetts Book Awards. Elyssa is an alumna of The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and has received awards and fellowships from The Corporation of Yaddo; the Ragdale, Jerome, and Ludwig Vogelstein Foundations; the University of Connecticut; the Phillips Library; and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She has taught Creative Writing at Columbia University, Rhode Island School of Design, SUNY Purchase and Cleveland State University and New York University’s Gallatin School. She grew up in Georgia and lives in New York City with her husband and son.
Erin Crosby Eckstine
Erin Crosby Eckstine is the author of Junie which was published by Ballantine Books in January 2025 and was a Good Morning America Book Club pick. Born in Montgomery, AL, Erin grew up between the South and Los Angeles before moving to New York City to attend Barnard College. She worked in a variety of digital media internships and jobs before pivoting to education and earning a master’s in secondary English education from Stanford University. She went on to teach high school English in Brooklyn, NY for six years before becoming a full-time writer. She writes speculative historical fiction, personal essays, and anything else she’s in the mood for. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and cats.
Justin Feinstein
Justin Feinstein is a writer across multiple mediums, whose debut novel will be published by Tachyon Publications in March 2026. His nonfiction includes writing about jazz for the Associated Press, about the UFC for VICE, and about being a celebrity doppelgänger for Salon. Justin’s work as an advertising copywriter and creative director has received accolades from The New York Times, Adweek and BuzzFeed. He was a Berklee-trained professional musician in a past life, and also earned an MA in media studies from The New School. Justin lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
Libby Flores
Libby Flores is a 2008 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow. Her short fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, Post Road Magazine, Tin House The Open Bar, The Guardian, The Rattling Wall, Paper Darts, Bridge Eight, FLASH: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. She is the former Director of Literary Programs at PEN Center USA . In 2018 she directed the second annual Believer Festival. She is currently the Director of Audience Engagement and Digital Projects at BOMB magazine and the NYC Director of the Freya Project. Libby holds an MFA in creative writing from Bennington College. She lives in Brooklyn, but will always be a Texan.
Xeni Fragakis
Xeni Fragakis earned her Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction Writing from the University of Iowa. There she taught writing to undergraduates and was named an Iowa Arts Scholar. Her work has appeared in the Modern Love section of The New York Times. She is also a storyteller and Moth GrandSlam Champion. Most recently, she was selected to attend the Sewanee Writers’ Conference as a fiction contributor. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, cartoonist Glenn Head.
Kaitlyn Greenidge
Kaitlyn Greenidge is originally from Boston. She’s a graduate of Hunter College’s MFA program and has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Fortnight Journal. Her work has appeared in The Believer, American Short Fiction, At Length Magazine, Afrobeat Journal, Green Mountains Review and The Feminist Wire, and been reprinted in The Believer‘s collection Always Apprentices. Her debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, was published in 2016 by Algonquin Press.
Zakia Henderson-Brown
Zakia Henderson-Brown is the author of What Kind of Omen Am I, winner of the 2017 Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship. She was a 2016 Poets House Emerging Poets fellow, and has received additional fellowships and support from the Fine Arts Work Center, Callaloo Journal, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and Cave Canem. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Adroit, African American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, the Brooklyn Review, Burner Magazine, Epiphany, Little Patuxent Review, and other publications.
She was selected as a finalist for the 2021 Publishers Weekly Star to Watch program, selected as a finalist for the 2019 Furious Flower Poetry Prize by A. Van Jordan, nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2013 by Beloit Poetry Journal, and has been in residence at the T.S. Eliot House, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Louis Armstrong House Museum. She earned a BA from Wesleyan University, and an MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation from Queens College, where she also served as an adjunct professor. She currently serves as a senior editor at nonprofit publisher The New Press. She is a Brooklyn native and loyalist.
Sarah Herrington
Sarah Herrington is an essayist, poet, editor and teacher. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Modern Love, Anxiety, Solver Stories and OpEd columns, the LATimes, SFChronicle, Tin House, Slice, NYLON, Salon, Los Angeles Review of Books, Interview, Entropy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Poets and Writers magazine, Oprah magazine and other publications. She’s the author of four books on yoga and spirituality. She holds MFAs from New York University and Lesley University and teaches at Loyola Marymount University.
Yahdon Israel
Yahdon Israel is an educator, entrepreneur, editor, writer and founder of Literaryswag, a cultural movement that intersects literature and fashion to make books cool. He teaches creative writing at The New School, City College and Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop. He is the former editor-in-chief of Brooklyn Magazine. He has written for Avidly, The New Inquiry, LitHub, Poets and Writers and Vanity Fair. And he hosts the Literaryswag Book Club, a Brooklyn-based subscription service and book club that meets every last Wednesday of the month.
Lauren Kate
Lauren Kate is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the Fallen novels, the Teardrop novels, and The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove. Her books have been translated into more than 30 languages. The feature film of her novel, Fallen, was released by Sony Pictures in the fall of 2017. She holds a terminal MA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from UC-Davis and worked previously as an acquiring editor at HarperCollins Publishers. Lauren’s newest novel, a rom-com, By Any Other Name, was published in April 2022. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.
Zain Khalid
Zain Khalid’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, n+1, The Believer, Astra Magazine, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and elsewhere. He is also the fiction editor at The Drift. His debut novel, BROTHER ALIVE (Grove Atlantic), is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize for best first book in any genre and was named a best book of 2022 by Library Journal and other outlets.
Swati Khurana
Swati Khurana’s writing has been published in The New York Times, Guernica, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Offing, The Rumpus, and in the anthology Good Girls Marry Doctors. Her writing and visual artwork have been supported by fellowships and residencies from New York Foundation for the Arts, Center for Fiction, Jerome Foundation, Bronx Arts Council, Center for Books Arts, Cooper Union, Kundiman, Henry Street Settlement, Wave Hill, and Vermont Studio Center. Born in New Delhi, raised in the Hudson Valley, and now living and working in New York City. Currently, she is working on her novel, The No.1 Printshop of Lahore, and developing her podcast, “TBR: Tarot Books Radio,” which uses the format of a Tarot reading to have conversations, centering women-of-color artists, writers, and activists. A lifelong learner, Swati has studied at Hunter College (M.F.A. Fiction), UnionDocs (Podcast School), NYU (M.A. in Studio Art & Art Criticism), Columbia University (B.A. in History), Transformative Mediation (Dutchess County Mediation Center), and Coaching Essentials (Continuing Coach Education). Yet her greatest teachers have been an obsessive collection of books to be read, and her seven-year-old daughter.
Linni Kral
Linni Kral is a Brooklyn-based writer, editor, and PEN Prison Writing Mentor whose work has been published in The Atlantic, Slate, Condé Nast Traveler, The Village Voice, and Atlas Obscura, among others. She studied writing at Occidental College and Boston University, read for literary agents Lucy Carson and Molly Friedrich, and served as Editor-at-Large for food magazines GRLSQUASH and Put A Egg On It. In 2019, she published a book of essays and poems titled SADSPRING. She is currently at work on a novel.
Marissa Levien
Marissa Levien received her MFA from Stony Brook University, where she also helped run the Southampton Writers Conference. Her debut novel The World Gives Way was released by Hachette in 2021, earning praise from The New York Times, Vulture, Literary Hub, Publishers Weekly, and a selection as an IndieNext Pick. Her work has been published in Writer’s Digest, Literary Hub, Publisher’s Weekly, Saint Ann’s Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. She has previously taught workshops for Stony Brook University, John Jermain Workshops, and Harlem Educational Activities Fund.
Mengyin Lin
Born and raised in Beijing, Mengyin Lin is a Chinese writer living in the US. Mandarin is her mother tongue and she writes in English as her second language. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College where she won the Himan Brown Award and a BFA in Film from New York University. Her work is published or forthcoming in Ploughshares, The New York Times, Guernica, swamp pink, Joyland, Epiphany, Fence, Pleiades, and Best Debut Short Stories 2023. She is the winner of 2023 Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest, 2023 swamp pink Fiction Prize, 2023 Pen/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, and 2022 Breakout Writers Prize. Her work has been supported by Tin House, Bread Loaf, VCCA, KHN Center for the Arts, Saltonstall Foundation, and more.
Susie Luo
Susie Luo is a corporate escapee turned fiction author. Her debut novel, Paper Names, will be published by HarperCollins on May 2, 2023. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, she was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and an M&A lawyer at a major law firm. She wrote her first novel at night after work, and has carried over those night owl tendencies to her second manuscript. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell Law School. She lives in New York with her very spirited rescue pup, Delta.
Rachel Lyon
Rachel Lyon is the author of SELF-PORTRAIT WITH BOY (Scribner 2018), which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Dublin International Literary Award. Her shorter work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in One Story, Longreads, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and other publications. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Epiphany and a cofounder of the reading series Ditmas Lit.
Kyle McCarthy
Kyle McCarthy’s work has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2017, American Short Fiction, the Harvard Review, Southwest Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her debut novel, Everyone Knows How Much I Love You, was published by Ballantine Books in 2020.
Beth Morgan
Beth Morgan is the author of A Touch of Jen, which she has also adapted for the screen. A Touch of Jen was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and named a best book of the year by The Rumpus. Her short fiction has been published in The Iowa Review, The Baffler, and The Kenyon Review online.
Leslie-Ann Murray
Leslie-Ann Murray is a fiction writer from Trinidad & Tobago. She created Brown Girl Book Lover, a social media platform where she interviews diverse writers and reviews books that should be at the forefront of our imagination. She also produces a monthly newsletter, Come Get Your Diversity. Leslie-Ann is currently working on her first novel, This Has Made Us Beautiful. Leslie-Ann has been published in Poets & Writers, Zone 3, Ploughshares, Brittle Paper, Obsidian Literary Magazine, and Salamander Literary Magazine. Leslie-Ann has taught creative writing in France, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, China, and New York City.
Heather Aimee O’Neill
Heather Aimee O’Neill’s debut novel, THE IRISH GOODBYE, will be published by Henry Holt in Fall 2025.
Heather has worked with hundreds of novelists, memoirists, short-story and essay writers in Sackett Street’s popular Manuscript Generator Workshop (online and in Brooklyn), helping writers finish, polish, and find publication for book-length projects.
Heather has been an editor and writing coach since 2009, providing in-depth developmental feedback for authors of literary and commercial fiction, nonfiction and poetry.
Her most recent collection of poetry, Obliterations, was co-authored with Jessica Piazza and published by Red Hen Press. A recent Lambda Literary Poetry Fellow, her poetry chapbook, Memory Future, won the University of Southern California’s Gold Line Press Award, chosen by judge Carol Muske-Dukes. She is a freelance writer for publications such as Time Out New York, Parents Magazine and Salon.com.
Mark Prins
Mark Prins is the author of The Latinist, published by W.W. Norton in January 2022. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Mark has received fellowships from the Truman Capote Trust, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Previously, he studied literature at Williams College and Exeter College, Oxford. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Anna Qu
Anna Qu is a Chinese-American writer and the author of Made In China: A Memoir, published in August 2021. Her nonfiction has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Kartika Review, Kweli Journal, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, XOJane, Jezebel, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Anna currently serves as the Nonfiction Editor at Kweli, and formerly worked in the publishing on the agency side. She lives in Brooklyn.
Nancy Rawlinson
Nancy Rawlinson has been working as a freelance editor and writing coach since 2003, providing in-depth developmental feedback for authors of literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir. Recent books that she has worked on include books published by Harper, Picador, Scribner, Atria, Simon and Schuster, Knopf, Houghton Mifflin, Liveright, Chicago Review Press, Crown, and more.
Nancy started her life as an editor and writer working for magazines and newspapers such as The Guardian, The Sun, Time Out London, and Madison magazine. She has an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. From 2006-2008 she was a nonfiction editor at Guernica: A Magazine of Art and Politics. As a writer she has been awarded residencies and fellowships from the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Jentel Artist Residency Program. She trained as a coach at the NLP Center of New York and lives in Brooklyn with her two sons.
Sarah Seltzer
Sarah Seltzer is a writer and reporter covering education, activism, gender, politics, pop culture and parenting. She is the Executive Editor of Lilith magazine and her writing on cultural criticism has been published widely. Her debut novel, THE SINGER SISTERS, was published by Flatiron Books in 2023.
Amy Shearn
Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the novels Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here. She works with writers at Medium and is the editor of Human Parts and Creators Hub. A former fiction editor at the literary magazine Joyland, Amy’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Catapult, and many other publications. Amy has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children.
Emily Temple
Emily Temple is the author of The Lightness and the Managing Editor at Literary Hub. She earned her MFA in fiction from the University of Virginia, where she was the recipient of a Henfield Prize.
Her short fiction has appeared in Colorado Review, Electric Literature‘s Recommended Reading, Indiana Review, Fairy Tale Review, Sonora Review, Sycamore Review, No Tokens, Territory, and elsewhere.
Ted Thompson
Ted Thompson is the author of The Land of Steady Habits, which was published by Little, Brown in 2014 and was a finalist for the Center for Fiction Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. The novel is being adapted by Nicole Holofcener for a feature film starring Ben Mendelsohn, Edie Falco and Connie Britton, to be released in late 2017. His short stories have been published in Tin House, American Short Fiction, One Teen Story and Best New American Voices, and he’s had fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the MacDowell Colony. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Ted has proudly taught for Sackett for over eight years, as well as at Amherst College and in the Brooklyn College MFA program. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.
Jeanne Thornton
Jeanne Thornton is the author of Summer Fun, a novel, The Dream of Doctor Bantam (a Lambda Literary Award finalist) and The Black Emerald. She is the copublisher of Instar Books and creator of the web comics The Man Who Hates Fun and Bad Mother. She lives in Brooklyn.
Ly Tran
Ly Tran is the author of the memoir, House of Sticks, chosen as “Best Book of the Year” by NPR and Vogue, and won the New York City Book Awards Hornblower Award. She has been awarded fellowships from MacDowell, Art Omi, Yaddo, and Millay Arts.
Elizabeth Weiss
Elizabeth Weiss‘s debut novel, The Sisters Sweet, will be published by The Dial Press in November 2021. She earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow. Her nonfiction has been published in The New Yorker online. She has taught for the University of Iowa, the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, and the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, and is a mentor for the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. She lives in Minneapolis with her spouse, daughter, and dog.
Piper Weiss
Piper Weiss is the author of the memoir You All Grow Up and Leave Me, named one of the Best Books of 2018 by Marie-Claire, Town and Country and PopSugar, and listed among the top true crime reads by Buzzfeed, CrimeReads and Elle Australia. She had previously served as an editor at the New York Daily News, and as editorial director at HelloGiggles, in addition to writing for print, TV and film. She was a fellow at VCCA and earned her BA in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University.
Monica West
Monica West is the author of the novel Revival Season which was a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and a finalist for the 2022 Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, she received her MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop where she was a Rona Jaffe Graduate Fellow. She has received fellowships and residencies from Kimbilio Fiction, Hedgebrook, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Bread Loaf. She earned her B.A. in English Literature from Duke University and her M.A. in English and American Literature from New York University. She currently lives in Seattle where she teaches at the University of San Francisco.
Khaliah Williams
Khaliah Williams is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has been published in Hawaii Women’s Journal, Frontier Psychiatrist, and Day One, and her non-fiction at Buzzfeed, American Short Fiction and Book Country. She is a current fellow at the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction and an Instructor and Advisory Board member of Writers in Baltimore School. Originally from Philadelphia, she lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She is at work on a novel and collection of short stories.
Melissa Ximena Golebiowiski
Melissa Ximena Golebiowski is a Latinx writer and editor based in Los Angeles, CA. She is the former National Assigning Editor for Literary Hub. Originally from NJ but the child of immigrants from different countries respectively, her mixed culture can often be found in her writing. Her work has been featured in Catapult, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, and Entropy among others.
Melissa is currently at work on a short story collection entitled Blanket Girl & Other Stories which explores the spiritual & ancestral connection between intimacy and grief and how each manifests in both familial and romantic relationships. The collection will be illustrated by surrealist artist and sculptor, Jim McKenzie.