Mary Kay Andrews is the New York Times bestselling author of The Fixer Upper, Deep Dish, Blue Christmas, Savannah Breeze, Hissy Fit, Little Bitty Lies, and Savannah Blues. A former journalist for The Atlanta Journal Constitution, she lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Ellis Avery is the author of The Teahouse Fire (Riverhead, 2006). The winner of three awards, including the American Library Association Stonewall Fiction Award, The Teahouse Fire was translated into five languages. Avery teaches fiction writing at Columbia University and lives in New York City. Her new novel, The Last Nude, was inspired by the life and work of Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka.

Darrell Bourque is Professor Emeritus in English and Interdisciplinary Humanities from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His most recent works are In Ordinary Light, New and Selected Poems (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2010), and Holding the Notes, a special commissioned chapbook (Chicory Bloom Press, 2011). In 2009 he directed the Imagining Lincoln: Louisiana Poetry Project as part of Louisiana and the nation’s observance of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial. He was named the Louisiana Poet Laureate in 2007 and again in 2009.

Eleanor Brown was born in Washington D.C., and grew up in a family of readers, which includes her parents and her two sisters. Eleanor’s writing has appeared in anthologies, journals, magazines, and newspapers. The Weird Sisters, her first novel, hit the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and national indie bestseller lists. She holds an MA in literature and lives in Colorado with her partner, writer J.C. Hutchins.

Robert Olen Butler has published twelve novels and six volumes of short fiction, one of which, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His book of lectures on the creative process, From Where You Dream, is widely used in writing workshops. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University, where he is the Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor. Visit Robert Olen Butler’s website

Cassandra Clare made her fiction debut with The Mortal Instruments series, which has been on many bestseller lists. Cassandra lives in an old Victorian house in western Massachusetts with her husband, their cats, and lots and lots of books. Visit Cassandra Clare’s website or find out more about her book Clockwork Angel.

Sarah Cortez is the author of an acclaimed poetry collection and the winner of a 1999 PEN Texas literary award. She edited Windows into My World: Latino Youth Write Their Lives, Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery and Indian Country Noir. Her latest project is You Don’t Have a Clue: Latino Mystery Fiction for Teens. Kirkus Reviews hailed the anthology as “a consistent, well-crafted collection.”

Mark Doty’s Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008. He is the author of seven previous books of poems and five volumes of nonfiction prose, including Dog Years, a meditation on the bond between animals and human beings, and on the pleasures and sorrows of living with dogs. He has worked with gay and lesbian youth at risk of homelessness and with senior gay and lesbian citizens in New York City, and has taught poetry at many colleges and universities as well as in community programs around the country. He lives in New York City and on the east end of Long Island, and is a professor of English at Rutgers University.

Frances O’Roark Dowell is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Dovey Coe, which won the Edgar Award; Where I’d Like to Be; the bestselling The Secret Language of Girls, and its sequel The Kind of Friends We Used to Be; Chicken Boy; Shooting the Moon, which was awarded the Christopher Medal; the Phineas L. MacGuire series, Falling In; and, most recently, her YA debut Ten Miles Past Normal. Visit Frances O’Roark Dowell’s website.

Rachel Hadas is Board of Governors Professor of English at Rutgers University in Newark. She is the author of many books, including The River of Forgetfulness, Laws, Indelible, and Halfway Down the Hall: New & Selected Poems. She co-edited the anthology The Greek Poets: Homer to the Present.

Daniel Handler is the author of the novels The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth and Adverbs, and far too many books as Lemony Snicket. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and child.

Eleanor Henderson earned her MFA from the University of Virginia in 2005. Her story, "The Farms," was selected by Alice Sebold for The Best American Short Stories 2009. Her fiction has appeared in Agni, North American Review, Ninth Letter, and Columbia. Her nonfiction has appeared in Poets & Writers, where she was a contributing editor, and Virginia Quarterly Review, where she was chair of the fiction board. She is currently an assistant professor at Ithaca College.

When Sarah Inman’s not hanging upside down, hula hooping or chasing after her son, she writes. She is the author of The Least Resistance (NOLAFugees Press, 2010) and Finishing Skills (Livingston Press, 2005).

Tayari Jones has written for McSweeney’s, The New York Times, and The Believer. Her first novel, Leaving Atlanta, received best of the year nods from The Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and Creative Loafing. The Untelling won the Lillian C. Smith Award from the Southern Regional Council and was a Target “Breakout Book.” She serves on MFA faculty of Rutgers. Visit Tayari Jones’s writing blog.

R. Zamora Linmark is the author of Leche (Coffee House Press), and Rolling the R’s (Kaya Press) and three poetry collections, Prime Time Apparitions, The Evolution of a Sigh, and the forthcoming Drive By Vigils, all from Hanging Loose Press. A two-time FulbrightScholar, he has also received a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a U.S.–Japan Friendship Commission grant. Linmark lives in Manila and Honolulu.

Peter Lovesey is the author of twenty-five highly praised mystery novels and has been awarded the CWA Gold and Silver Daggers and the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement, as well as many US honors. He lives in West Sussex, England.

Cammie McGovern was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and is the author of two novels, Eye Contact and The Art of Seeing. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, and is one of the founders of Whole Children, a resource center that runs after-school classes and programs for children with special needs.

Jon Michaud is the head librarian at The New Yorker and is a regular contributor to The New Yorker. His short stories have been published in North American Review, Denver Quarterly, and other journals. He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey with his wife and their two sons.

Alison Pelegrin is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Hurricane Party (October 2011) and Big Muddy River of Stars (2007), both from the University of Akron Press. The recipient of fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts and the Louisiana Division of the Arts, her poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, and the Southern Review. She teaches English at Southeastern Louisiana University.

Jewell Parker Rhodes is an award-winning author of books for adults and children. Her adult titles (Voodoo Season and Douglass’ Women) have received accolades from organizations such as the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and her first work for young readers, Ninth Ward, is a 2011 Coretta Scott King Award Honor Book. Dr. Rhodes is the founding artistic director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.

Kim Michele Richardson is actively involved in victim abuse and works with legal advisors, government officials, and survivors/victims of all types of abuse. She is a go-to for news media for the endemic clergy abuse crisis and has appeared on national radio, news print, TV news channels and on PBS stations and more. Kim is a contributing writer to The Huffington Post, writing about societal issues.

David Rutledge teaches English at the University of New Orleans. He has edited two anthologies on New Orleans for Chin Music Press (Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? 2006, Where We Know, 2010). His book Nabokov’s Permanent Mystery (McFarland) came out in 2010.

Kalamu ya Salaam is a New Orleans-based writer, filmmaker, and educator and co-director of Students at the Center, a writing program in the New Orleans public schools. He is also moderator of Breath of Life, a Black music website. Kalamu blogs at neo•griot and his creative writings are available on his daily blog at WordUp.

Nalini Singh is the New York Times bestselling author of the incredibly popular Psy-Changeling and Guild Hunter series for Berkley. Born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand, Nalini currently lives in New Zealand. Her extensive travels have served as inspiration for her writing. Visit Nalini Singh's website. Her latest book is Kiss of Snow.

Tracey Tangerine is a singer, visual artist, author, and performer who has spent much of her time teaching in schools on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Buddy Zooka is her first novel.

Mark Yakich is the author of two poetry collections: Unrelated Individuals Forming A Group Waiting to Cross (Penguin, 2004), and The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine (Penguin, 2008). His first novel, A Meaning for Wife, is forthcoming in November 2011. Mark lives in New Orleans, where he teaches English at Loyola University.