Anne Marie Macari is the author of She Heads into the Wilderness (Autumn House Press, 2008). Other books include Gloryland and Ivory Cradle. She directs the Drew University Low-Residency MFA Program.

Derek Green’s first book, New World Order, was selected to launch the Autumn House Press fiction series. He has been the recipient of many awards, including the University of Michigan’s prestigious Jule and Avery Hopwood Award in Creative Writing.

Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1961 to a white Scottish mother and a black Nigerian father. Her many books include The Adoption Papers, Why Don’t You Stop Talking,Wish I Was Here, and Red, Cherry Red. She lives in Manchester, England.

Angele Ellis is the author of a book of poetry, Arab on Radar (Six Gallery Press, 2007), and co-author of the diversity workbook Dealing With Differences (Corwin Press, 1997). She is a 2008 recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship.

M.L. Liebler is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Wide Awake in Someone Else’s Dream, a collection of traveling poems written in Russia, Israel, Germany, and China.

Ruth L. Schwartz is the author of three award-winning books of poetry and a memoir: Edgewater, Singular Bodies, Accordion Breathing and Dancing, and Death in Reverse: A Love Story.

Sheila Carter-Jones is the author of a book of poems, Blackberry Cobbler Song, published by Watermark Press, 2008. She has taught writing at the Young Writers Institute through the University of Pittsburgh and at Chatham College.

2009 winners of the University of Pittsburgh’s Writers Cafe contest are Shannon Spies, Amy Hays, Rachel Hutchinson, Jennifer Lue, and Noor Abdelghani.

Renee Alberts is the author of a book of poetry, No Water, published by Speed and Briscoe Press in 2009. She is co-coordinator of the Sunday Poetry and Reading Series at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Jan Beatty is the author of three books: Red Sugar (2008), Boneshaker (2002), and Mad River (winner, 1994 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize), all published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. She directs the creative writing program at Carlow University.