Aamina Ahmad is the author of the novel The Return of Faraz Ali (Riverhead, 2022), which won the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize from the UK Society of Authors, LA Times Book Prize's Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and Best First Novel award from the Writers Guild of Great Britain and was named a New York Times Editors' Choice and listed on NPR's Books We Love 2022. In June 2026, she published her debut story collection, July Sun (Riverhead). A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she has received a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, a Pushcart Prize, and a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award. Her short fiction has appeared in One Story, The Southern Review, Ecotone, and elsewhere; she is also the author of a play, The Dishonored. She teaches Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota.

Alysandra Dutton is a writer and amateur historian based in Minneapolis Minnesota. She researched The Stolen Women as a 2022 Sturgis Fellow in residence at The British School at Rome, where she visited ruins, museums, archives, and olive groves all over Italy. Her work has been generously supported by the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and Literary Cleveland. She has published short fiction in The Sun and Electric Literature: Recommended Reading, among other outlets. Her writing deals with themes of fine arts, history, and the commodification of the feminine form.

She teaches at the Saint Paul Conservatory for the Performing Arts, The Loft Literary Center, Interlochen Arts Camp, and Literary Cleveland.

Alysandra has two cats, named Denis Villeneuve, and Luca Guadagnino.

Andy Dehnart is a writer and teacher whose writing has appeared on NPR and in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Vulture, Playboy, The Daily Beast, and other publications. His memoir-in-progress, I’m Here to Make Friends, was longlisted for the 2022 First Pages Prize. Andy holds an MFA from Bennington College, and taught nonfiction writing and journalism for more than 20 years, including as an assistant professor of practice at Stetson University in Florida. Andy is vice president of the Television Critics Association, and also publishes and writes reality blurred, which has, since 2000, offered analysis and reporting on unscripted television. It won an Excellence in Journalism award from NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists (2023) and an L.A. Press Club National A&E Journalism Award (2021).

Hieu Minh Nguyen is the author of three poetry collections, including This Way to the Sugar (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014) and Not Here (Coffee House Press, 2018), which won the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry from the Publishing Triangle. His third collection, Staying Still, is forthcoming from Tin House Books in 2026. His honors include the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, a McKnight Writing Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship. He earned his MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Originally from the Twin Cities, Hieu lives in Oakland and is a Jones Lecturer in Poetry at Stanford University.

HILAL ISLER teaches at the University of Texas. Her short fiction and essays
have appeared in McSweeney’s, New York Magazine, The Believer, The Baltimore Review, The Paris Review online, and elsewhere. She lives with her family in Austin. Her doctorate is from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a former Loft McKnight and Mentor Series fellow. 

Megan Giddings is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota. Her novel Lakewood was published by Amistad in 2020. Her second novel, The Women Could Fly (Amistad, 2022), was named one of The Washington Post’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy novels of 2022, one of Vulture’s Best Fantasy books of 2022, and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice. In fall 2023, she was the Picador Professor at Leipzig University. Her third novel, Meet Me at the Crossroads (Amistad, 2025), was one of NPR’s Books We Love in 2025, one of Town and Country’s 20 Best Books of 2025, one of The Ottawa Citizen’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2025, and one of The Washington Post’s Best Science Fiction/Speculative Novels of 2025. Her first short story collection, Black Arts (Amistad), will be published in September 2026.

Ty Chapman is an author and poet based in Minnesota. He is the author of four children’s books, and the poetry collection, Tartarus. Additionally, he co-edited the poetry anthology, All Power to the People, with his friend and collaborator, Ari Tison. He has published poems through The Academy of American Poets, Water~Stone, and more. Ty has received fellowships from Cave Canem, The Center for Arts + Social Justice, and The Loft Literary Center. He holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults through Vermont College of Fine Arts. When he isn’t writing his next poetry collection or middle grade fantasy novel, he spends his time playing basketball and reading in the sun. Find out more on his website.