Jennifer Baker is a publishing professional of 20 years, the creator/host of the Minorities in Publishing podcast, a faculty member of the MFA program in Creative Nonfiction at Bay Path University, and a writing consultant at Baruch College. Formerly a contributing editor to Electric Literature, she received a 2017 NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship and a Queens Council on the Arts New Work Grant for Nonfiction Literature. Her essay "What We Aren't (or the Ongoing Divide)" was listed as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2018. In 2019, she was named Publishers Weekly Superstar for her contributions to inclusion and representation in publishing. Jennifer is also the editor of the all PoC-short story anthology Everyday People: The Color of Life (Atria Books, 2018) and the author of the YA novel Forgive Me Not (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2023). She has volunteered with organizations such as We Need Diverse Books and I, Too Arts Collective, and spoken widely on topics of inclusion, the craft of writing/editing, podcasting, and the inner-workings of the publishing industry. Her fiction, nonfiction, and criticism has appeared in various print and online publications.

Lauren Donovan is a teacher in Kansas City, Missouri, and has taught secondary English in both the middle and high school settings for nine years. She is also a student at the University of Kansas in an educational leadership doctorate program. She loves sharing her passion for reading and writing with her students. She enjoys to read and talk about realistic fiction as well as education reform nonfiction.