ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
Amy Benson is the author of two books: Seven Years to Zero (Dzanc Books, 2017), winner of the Dzanc Books Nonfiction Prize, and The Sparkling-Eyed Boy (Houghton Mifflin, 2004), chosen for Bread Loaf’s Bakeless Prize. She teaches writing at Rhodes College in Memphis.
Jung Hae Chae is the author of the forthcoming memoir-in-essays, Pojangmacha People, winner of the 2022 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. Previously, she won the 2021 Crazyhorse Prize in Nonfiction and the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest in Nonfiction from Ploughshares. Her writing can be found in AGNI, Guernica, New England Review, Ploughshares, swamp pink (formerly Crazyhorse), 2019 Pushcart Prize, and the 2022 Best American Essays.
Donald Carreira Ching was born and raised in Kahaluʻu, on the island of Oʻahu. His novel, Between Sky and Sea: a Family’s Struggle, was published by Bamboo Ridge Press. In 2018, he received the Elliot Cades Award for Literature. He is currently working on a short story collection, Blood Work and Other Stories, and The Bitter Storms, a climate fiction novel set in Hawaiʻi.
Kim Chinquee is the author of eight books, most recently her novel Pipette. She’s senior editor of New World Writing Quarterly, chief editor of ELJ (Elm Leaves Journal), associate editor of Midwest Journal, and co-director of SUNY-Buffalo State University’s writing major. She’s the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, a competitive triathlete, a certified USA Triathlon official, and lives with her three dogs in Tonawanda, New York.
Kevin Clouther is the author of We Were Flying to Chicago: Stories (Catapult). He is an associate professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha Writer’s Workshop, where he directs the MFA in Writing. He lives with his wife and two children in Omaha.
Frankie Concepcion is a writer from the Philippines and Massachusetts. She is an MFA candidate in fiction at Arizona State University and the current fiction editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review. She has received fellowships from Sibling Rivalry Press and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, and her writing has been published in Joyland, HYPHEN, Wildsam Travel Guides, and Rappler, amongst others. Her short story chapbook “Aftermath” is out now at Bottlecap Press.
Susannah Davies holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. When she is not at work on her short story collection, she is cooking, sewing, or printmaking. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and her cat.
Mario Giannone is a writer from South Jersey. He holds an MFA from Cornell University. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has previously appeared in Nashville Review, Third Coast, Indiana Review, and elsewhere. He is at work on a novel.
Jay Hodges is a graduate of the Bennington Writing Seminars, a Yaddo fellow, and the co-creator of the award-winning documentary Trinidad. His writing has appeared in Cutleaf, Time Out New York, and In These Times. His essay “Our Own Country” was included in the Best American Essays 2022 “Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction” list. “Timeline” is part of a memoir in progress.
Michelle Huneven is the author of five novels, most recently Search. She teaches creative writing at U.C.L.A. and lives in Altadena, California with her husband, her dog, a parrot, seven chickens, and five fish. She is working on a series of interconnected short stories of which “Bug Hollow” is the first.
Nicholas Montemarano is the author of three novels, a book of short stories, and, most recently, a memoir, If There Are Any Heavens (Persea Books, 2022). His short stories have appeared widely in publications including Esquire, Zoetrope: All-Story, Tin House, AGNI, and The Southern Review. He has received a Pushcart Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. He is the Alumni Professor of Creative Writing & Belles Lettres at Franklin & Marshall College.
James Morena earned his MFA in fiction at Mountain View Grand in Southern New Hampshire. His writing has been or is soon to be published in storySouth, Defunkt Magazine, Litro Magazine, The Citron Review, Pithead Chapel, Rio Grande Review and others. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Kirtan Nautiyal is an Indian-American writer now living in Houston, TX. The recipient of a scholarship to the 2022 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and a 2023 fellowship from the Ucross Foundation, he has most recently published work in Electric Literature, Guernica, and the anthology South to South: Writing South Asia in the American South. He is at work on a memoir-in-essays about the search for home.
Stephen O’Connor is the author of six books, most recently, Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings, a novel, and Here Comes Another Lesson, short stories. Quasimode, his first collection of poetry, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry Press. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Best American Short Stories, and many other places. He teaches in the Sarah Lawrence writing program.
Pamela Painter is the award-winning author of five story collections. Her stories recently appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Flash Boulevard, and Michigan Quarterly Review, among others, and in numerous anthologies such as Sudden Fiction, Flash Fiction, and BestMicrofictions of 2023. Painter’s stories have received three Pushcart Prizes, appear on the YouTube channel CRONOGEO, and have been presented by WordTheatre in LA, NYC, and London.
Jordan Rossen’s fiction has appeared in Colorado Review, Fourteen Hills, Grist, Reed Magazine, and elsewhere. He earned an MFA from the University of Montana and currently lives in Detroit, Michigan.
Jung Hae Chae is the author of the forthcoming memoir-in-essays, Pojangmacha People, winner of the 2022 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. Previously, she won the 2021 Crazyhorse Prize in Nonfiction and the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest in Nonfiction from Ploughshares. Her writing can be found in AGNI, Guernica, New England Review, Ploughshares, swamp pink (formerly Crazyhorse), 2019 Pushcart Prize, and the 2022 Best American Essays.
Donald Carreira Ching was born and raised in Kahaluʻu, on the island of Oʻahu. His novel, Between Sky and Sea: a Family’s Struggle, was published by Bamboo Ridge Press. In 2018, he received the Elliot Cades Award for Literature. He is currently working on a short story collection, Blood Work and Other Stories, and The Bitter Storms, a climate fiction novel set in Hawaiʻi.
Kim Chinquee is the author of eight books, most recently her novel Pipette. She’s senior editor of New World Writing Quarterly, chief editor of ELJ (Elm Leaves Journal), associate editor of Midwest Journal, and co-director of SUNY-Buffalo State University’s writing major. She’s the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, a competitive triathlete, a certified USA Triathlon official, and lives with her three dogs in Tonawanda, New York.
Kevin Clouther is the author of We Were Flying to Chicago: Stories (Catapult). He is an associate professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha Writer’s Workshop, where he directs the MFA in Writing. He lives with his wife and two children in Omaha.
Frankie Concepcion is a writer from the Philippines and Massachusetts. She is an MFA candidate in fiction at Arizona State University and the current fiction editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review. She has received fellowships from Sibling Rivalry Press and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, and her writing has been published in Joyland, HYPHEN, Wildsam Travel Guides, and Rappler, amongst others. Her short story chapbook “Aftermath” is out now at Bottlecap Press.
Susannah Davies holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. When she is not at work on her short story collection, she is cooking, sewing, or printmaking. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and her cat.
Mario Giannone is a writer from South Jersey. He holds an MFA from Cornell University. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has previously appeared in Nashville Review, Third Coast, Indiana Review, and elsewhere. He is at work on a novel.
Jay Hodges is a graduate of the Bennington Writing Seminars, a Yaddo fellow, and the co-creator of the award-winning documentary Trinidad. His writing has appeared in Cutleaf, Time Out New York, and In These Times. His essay “Our Own Country” was included in the Best American Essays 2022 “Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction” list. “Timeline” is part of a memoir in progress.
Michelle Huneven is the author of five novels, most recently Search. She teaches creative writing at U.C.L.A. and lives in Altadena, California with her husband, her dog, a parrot, seven chickens, and five fish. She is working on a series of interconnected short stories of which “Bug Hollow” is the first.
Nicholas Montemarano is the author of three novels, a book of short stories, and, most recently, a memoir, If There Are Any Heavens (Persea Books, 2022). His short stories have appeared widely in publications including Esquire, Zoetrope: All-Story, Tin House, AGNI, and The Southern Review. He has received a Pushcart Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. He is the Alumni Professor of Creative Writing & Belles Lettres at Franklin & Marshall College.
James Morena earned his MFA in fiction at Mountain View Grand in Southern New Hampshire. His writing has been or is soon to be published in storySouth, Defunkt Magazine, Litro Magazine, The Citron Review, Pithead Chapel, Rio Grande Review and others. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Kirtan Nautiyal is an Indian-American writer now living in Houston, TX. The recipient of a scholarship to the 2022 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and a 2023 fellowship from the Ucross Foundation, he has most recently published work in Electric Literature, Guernica, and the anthology South to South: Writing South Asia in the American South. He is at work on a memoir-in-essays about the search for home.
Stephen O’Connor is the author of six books, most recently, Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings, a novel, and Here Comes Another Lesson, short stories. Quasimode, his first collection of poetry, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry Press. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Best American Short Stories, and many other places. He teaches in the Sarah Lawrence writing program.
Pamela Painter is the award-winning author of five story collections. Her stories recently appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Flash Boulevard, and Michigan Quarterly Review, among others, and in numerous anthologies such as Sudden Fiction, Flash Fiction, and BestMicrofictions of 2023. Painter’s stories have received three Pushcart Prizes, appear on the YouTube channel CRONOGEO, and have been presented by WordTheatre in LA, NYC, and London.
Jordan Rossen’s fiction has appeared in Colorado Review, Fourteen Hills, Grist, Reed Magazine, and elsewhere. He earned an MFA from the University of Montana and currently lives in Detroit, Michigan.