Brahna Yassky is an author and painter. Her debut book Slow Dancing with Fire – a Memoir of Resilience was published by Shanti Arts Publishing in May 2022. Her writing has appeared in The Plentitudes Journal, American Writers Review 2020, The Independent, Salon, Wired, Lilith, AARP’s The Ethel and The Girlfriend and others. She won honorable mention for The Doheny Prize 2018 from the Center for Fiction. Her paintings have been exhibited extensively including The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Jersey City Museum, MOMA, The Bali Purnati Center, The Hudson River Museum, The Painting Center in Chelsea. https://www.brahnayassky.com/

Sue Mell is a writer from Queens, NY. She earned her MFA from Warren Wilson, and was a 2020 BookEnds fellow at SUNY Stony Brook. Her debut novel, PROVENANCE, won Madville Publishing’s 2021 Blue Moon Novel Award and was chosen as a 2022 Great Group Read by the Women’s National Book Association. Her collection of micro essays, GIVING CARE, won the 2022 Chestnut Review Prose Chapbook Prize, and her collection of short stories, A NEW DAY, was a finalist for the 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award. Other work has appeared in Cleaver Magazine, Hippocampus Magazine, Jellyfish Review, Narrative Magazine and elsewhere. Find her at www.suemellwrites.com and on Twitter @suemell2017

Beverly Willett is the author of Disassembly Required: A Memoir of Midlife Resurrection, a story about beginning again after the American Dream implodes. The book was excerpted by AARP Magazine, nominated for Georgia Author of the Year, and a June 2022 pick by the world’s largest book club, The International Pulpwood Queens. Kirkus Reviews called it a “triumphant journey to new beginnings;” bestselling author Caroline Leavitt called it an “enchanting and inspiring look at how less can really be so, so much more.” A former NYC entertainment attorney, Beverly has written for the nation’s top publications including The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Daily News, The Guardian, Salon, and many more. She also gave a popular Tedx Talk entitled “How to Begin Again. A past President of the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home Foundation, Beverly now makes her home in Savannah, Georgia. www.beverlywillett.com

Kate Walter is the author of two memoirs: Behind the Mask: Living Alone in the Epicenter; and Looking for a Kiss: A Chronicle of Downtown Heartbreak and Healing. Her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, New York Daily News, AM-NY, Next Avenue, The Advocate, The Village Sun and many other outlets. She taught writing at CUNY and NYU for three decades. https://katewalter.com/