Sara Johnson Allen was raised (mostly) in North Carolina. Her debut novel, Down Here We Come Up, winner of the Big Moose Prize from Black Lawrence Press, was released in August 2023. A recipient of the Marianne Russo Award for Emerging Writers by the Key West Literary Seminar, the Stockholm Writers Festival First Pages Prize, an artistic grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, and MacDowell fellowships, her work has appeared in PANK Magazine, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Reckon Review among others. When she is not teaching or shuttling her three kids around, she writes about place and how it shapes us.

Jennifer Freed‘s When Light Shifts, a Memoir-in-Poems, finalist for the Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize, explores the aftermath of her mother’s cerebral hemorrhage and the altered relationships that emerge in a family health crisis. She worked for many years as an ESL teacher, and has been leading writing programs since 2014.  She lives in Beverly, MA.  Please visit her website: jfreed.weebly.com

Carla Panciera was born in Westerly, RI, and lives in Rowley, MA. She is the author of Barnflower: A Rhode Island Farm Memoir (Loom Press), and Bewildered (University of Massachusetts Press), winner of AWP’s Grace Paley Award. She has also published two collections of poetry: One of the Cimalores (Cider Press) and No Day, No Dusk, No Love (Bordighera). Her poetry and prose have appeared in numerous journals including Poetry Magazine and the New England Review. Find more information about Carla and her books at carlapanciera.wordpress.com.