Essie Chambers is an author and award-winning independent producer. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Vermont Studio Center, and Baldwin for the Arts. Previously, she worked as a television executive, and was a producer on the Oscar-shortlisted documentary Descendant, which was released by the Obamas’ Higher Ground production company and Netflix in 2022. Her debut novel Swift River came out in June 2024.

Ellen Meeropol's fifth novel, The Lost Women of Azalea Court, was published in September 2022 by Red Hen Press. Her previous novels are Her Sister's Tattoo, Kinship of Clover, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest. Ellen's work has been honored by the Sarton Women's Prize, The Women's National Book Association, and the Massachusetts Center for the Book. A Founding Member of the Straw Dog Writers Guild and coordinator of its WriteAngles writers conference held in April 2024, Ellen is married to Robert Meeropol, the younger son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. They have two grown daughters, two grandchildren, and one cat, and live in western Massachusetts.

The primary songwriter for the beloved and lauded folk-rock band The Nields, Nerissa Nields has written 21 CDs worth of songs. Her books include the YA novel Plastic Angel, All Together Singing in the Kitchen: Creative Ways to Make and Listen to Music as a Family, and How to Be an Adult: A Creative Guide to Navigating Your Twenties. Her work has been published in Brevity, American Songwriter, J Journal: New Writing on Justice, Performing Songwriter, The Huffington Post, The Maine Review, and the Boston Globe. She is currently working on The Nields’ twenty-second album, and the third novel in a trilogy about a family band.