CAMILLE ACKER

( las cruces, new mexico )
Camille Acker grew up in Washington DC. She holds a B.A. in English from Howard University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New Mexico State University. Her short story collection, Training School for Negro Girls, was published by The Feminist Press in October 2018. Her writing has also appeared in Electric Literature, Publishers Weekly, Splinter, VICE, DAME Magazine, Fandor, and NewCity, among others. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in Fiction for the Creative Writing program at New Mexico State University.
 
 
 
 
 
 

TOMMY ORANGE

( angel’s camp, california )
Tommy Orange is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel There There, a multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about a side of America few of us have ever seen: the lives of urban Native Americans. Orange is a recent graduate from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is a 2014 MacDowell Fellow, and a 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, California, and currently lives in Angel’s Camp, California. Orange is presented in partnership with Treasure Valley Reads.
 

JAMIE FORD

( great falls, montana )
Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer, Min Chung, who emigrated from Kaiping, China to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the western name “Ford,” thus confusing countless generations. His debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list and went on to win the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and has been optioned for film and stage.

His second book, Songs of Willow Frost, was also a national bestseller. His work has been translated into 35 languages. (He’s still holding out for Klingon, because that’s when you know you’ve made it). His latest novel is Love and Other Consolations Prizes. When not writing or daydreaming, he can be found tweeting @jamieford and posting on Instagram @jamiefordofficial.

REEMA ZAMAN

( oregon, united states )
Reema Zaman is an award-winning author, speaker, and actress. She was born in Bangladesh, raised in Hawaii and Thailand, and presently lives in Oregon, United States. She is Oregon Literary Arts’ Writer of Color Fellow, 2018. Her essays have been published in The Guardian, The Rumpus, Narratively, SHAPE, VIDA, and elsewhere. She proudly partners with various organizations, like Girls Inc. and Literary Arts, to help empower diverse voices, both youthful and older, spanning cultures.

Reema travels widely to speak and perform. Her body of work and events schedule can be found at www.reemazaman.com. For social media, as the only Reema Zaman in the world, she is easy to find.

MICHAEL GREEN

( boise, idaho )
Michael McKee Green’s first book, Fugue Figure (the Kent State University Press), was selected by Khaled Mattawa as the winner of the 2017 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize. Work of his appears in journals such as Michigan Quarterly Review, Tagvverk, Fog Machine, Tarpaulin Sky and his poem “In Remit” won the Burnam Poetry Scholarship (Judge, Ed Skoog). Currently, he is an MFA candidate at Boise State University, where he sits on Ahsahta Press’ editorial board and teaches creative writing.
 
 
 

JANALYN GUO

( salt lake city, utah )
Janalyn Guo is the author of the short fiction collection Our Colony Beyond the City of Ruins (Subito Press, 2018). In her stories, people grow plants from their bodies or give birth to trees. She holds an MFA in fiction from Brown University, and her work appears or is forthcoming in a number of literary journals, including Indiana Review, Denver Quarterly, The Collagist, and Black Sun Lit. She lives in Salt Lake City, where she occasionally teaches a weird fiction class through the continuing education program at the University of Utah.
 
 
 
 
 
 

CATHERINE KYLE

( boise, idaho )
Catherine Kyle is the author of the poetry collection Parallel (Another New Calligraphy, 2017); the hybrid-genre collection Feral Domesticity (Robocup Press, 2014); and the poetry chapbooks Flotsam (Etched Press, 2015), Gamer: A Role-Playing Poem (dancing girl press, 2015), and Saint: A Post-Dystopian Hagiography (dancing girl press, 2018). Her writing has been honored by the Idaho Commission on the Arts, the Alexa Rose Foundation, and other organizations.

She holds a Ph.D. in English from Western Michigan University and is pursuing an MFA in Poetry through New England College’s low-residency program. She teaches creative writing at the College of Western Idaho and through The Cabin. Her website is www.catherinebaileykyle.com.
 
 
 

ESTER CEJA

( boise, idaho )
Ester Ceja, native of Southcentral Idaho, daughter of immigrant parents. Ester has been involved in community activities since 1996. She is a board member of Immigrant Justice Idaho (IJI). She holds a BA in Political Science and MPA from Boise State University. She has spent the last 18 years working in the environmental field in the non-profit, private, and public sectors.
 

NICK QUAH

( united states )
Nick Quah is the publisher and editor of Hot Pod, a trade newsletter about the podcast industry. Hot Pod provides analysis, insight, and commentary on the growing podcast industry — and whatever it will be in the years to come.

Quah is also the podcast critic for Vulture, New York Magazine’s culture and entertainment site, and is working on a book for Public Affairs, an imprint of Hachette.
 

DANIEL ORTIZ-LOPEZ

( boise, idaho )
Daniel Ortiz-Lopez is a first generation American-born citizen. His parents and grandparents were born in Mexico and have lived successful lives raising three kids, of which he is the eldest. Daniel grew up in the small town of Greenleaf, Idaho. When he was 17, he joined the Navy and served for 5 years and is an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran. Armed with research and determination, Daniel demonstrates and advocates for deported military veterans demanding answers and action.

To do this, he has worked with PODER of Idaho and Boise State University’s Tunnel of Oppression. Daniel is instrumental in furthering discussion about deported veterans with local immigration attorneys and in informing the public through activism. His goal is to fight for their civil liberties and continue to push for, and eventually achieve the return of these men to US soil. Daniel represents and is a voice for dependents of military service members whom are also subject to deportation.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

MARIA ANDRADE

( boise, idaho )
Maria E. Andrade is the principal of Andrade Legal, a firm with offices in Boise, Idaho and Ontario, Oregon. Ms. Andrade’s practice focuses on removal defense, family immigration, federal litigation, business immigration and illegal re-entry defense. Ms. Andrade’s litigation experience including petitions for review, habeas petitions, mandamus actions, petitions for post-conviction relief, as well as affirmative civil litigation. Ms. Andrade frequently lectures and advises criminal defense attorneys on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions, and was awarded the 2015 Nevin Professionalism Award by the Idaho Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on the basis of that work.

ASHLEY TOLIVER

( portland, oregon )
Ashley Toliver is the author of Spectra (Coffee House Press, September 2018) and a chapbook, Ideal Machine (Poor Claudia, 2014). A poetry editor at Moss., she teaches poetry at the Attic Institute in SE Portland. Her work has been supported by fellowships from Oregon Literary Arts, the Cave Canem Foundation, the Academy of American Poets. She received her MFA from Brown University in 2013. A selection of her poems available online can be found below.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

TARA CONKLIN

( seattle, washington )
Tara Conklin is a writer and former lawyer whose first novel, The House Girl, was a New York Times bestseller, #1 IndieNext pick, Target book club pick and has been translated into 8 languages. Her second novel, The Last Romantics, is forthcoming in February 2019 from William Morrow/Harper Collins.

Before turning to fiction, Tara worked for an international human rights organization and at corporate law firms in London and New York. Her writing has appeared in This is the Place: Women Writing About Home, The Bristol Prize Anthology and Pangea: An Anthology of Stories from Around the Globe. Tara was born in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands and grew up in western Massachusetts. She holds a BA in history from Yale University, a JD from NYU School of Law and a Master of Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She now lives in Seattle with her family.
 
 
 
 
 
 

KIRK SIEGLER

( culver city, california )
As a correspondent on NPR’s national desk, Kirk Siegler covers the urban-rural divide in America. A beat exploring the intersection between urban and rural life, culture, and politics, Siegler has recently brought listeners and readers to a timber town in Idaho that lost its last sawmill just days before the 2016 election, as well as to small rural towns in Nebraska where police are fighting an influx in recreational marijuana coming from nearby Colorado cities.

Based at NPR West’s studios in Culver City, CA, but frequently roaming the country, Siegler’s reporting has also focused on the far-reaching economic impacts of the drought in the West while explaining the broader, national significance to many of the region’s complex and bitter disputes around land use. His assignments have brought listeners to the heart of anti-government standoffs in Oregon and Nevada, including a rare interview with recalcitrant rancher Cliven Bundy in 2014.

JONATHAN EVISON

( bainbridge island, washington )
Jonathan Evison is the New York Times Bestselling author of All About Lulu, West of Here, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, This is Your Life, Harriet Chance! and Lawn Boy. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Salon. Sherman Alexie has called Evison the most honest white man alive.
 
 
 

BENJAMIN SCHMITT

( seattle, washington )
Benjamin Schmitt is the Best Book Award and Pushcart nominated author of three books, most recently Soundtrack to a Fleeting Masculinity (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, Fall 2018). His poems have appeared in the Antioch Review, Hobart, Worcester Review, Columbia Review, Roanoke Review, and elsewhere. A co-founder of Pacifica Writers’ Workshop, he has also written articles for The Seattle Times and At The Inkwell. He lives in Seattle with his wife and children.
 
 
 

SARAH MANGUSO

( los angeles, california )
Sarah Manguso is the author of seven books. 300 Arguments (2017), a work of aphoristic autobiography and “a pocket-sized foray into the frontier of contemporary nonfiction writing,” was named a book of the year by more than twenty publications including NPR and Buzzfeed. Her other nonfiction books include Ongoingness: The End of a Diary (2015), an essay on self-documentation, motherhood, and time; The Guardians (2012), an essay on friendship and suicide; and The Two Kinds of Decay (2008), an essay on living with chronic illness, which was shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize and longlisted for the Royal Society Winton Prize. Manguso’s story collection, Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape (2007), was published by McSweeney’s as part of 145 Stories in a Small Box and was preceded by two poetry collections, Siste Viator (2006) and The Captain Lands in Paradise (2002), poems from which won a 2003 Pushcart Prize and appeared in four volumes of the Best American Poetry series.

BRIDGET QUINN

( san francisco, california )
Bridget Quinn is the author of Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order), an Amazon pick for Best Art & Photography Books 2017 and a 2018 Amelia Bloomer List selection of recommended feminist literature from the American Library Association. Book Authority named Broad Strokes one of its “Best Art History Books of All Time.” A denizen of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto, Bridget is co-host of the Grotto’s weekly podcast, The GrottoPod: Writers on Writing. She’s currently at work on Suffragist City, an illustrated history of the 19th Amendment and what happened next, for Chronicle Books.
 
 
 
 
 

LARRY ROSEN

( san francisco, california )
Larry Rosen is a podcaster, writer and journalist. The co-host of The GrottoPod and (Is it) Good for the Jews?, his work has appeared in San Francisco Magazine, ESPN.com, Seattle Magazine, The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Washington Law & Politics, patch.com and others. From 2007-2013 he was the real estate columnist at the San Francisco Examiner and has had a recurring humor column in J., the Jewish Weekly. Rosen lives in San Francisco, is a member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto and is presently working on a pair of novels.
 
 
 
 
 
 

ERIN ROSE BELAIR

( california )
Erin Rose Belair is a multi-genre writer living in Southern California. She received her MFA from Boise State Universtiy where she wrote her first collection of short stories, Vinegar. Erin Rose is a travel essayist, copywriter, and editorial creator at LiveFAST Magazine in LA. She was recently a resident at the Vermont Studio Center where she was working on her first novel. She can rarely be found in one place for very long, so you can follow all of her work and travels, and receive a daily dose of prose via her Instagram @roseblacque.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

CL YOUNG

( boise, idaho )
CL Young is the author of two chapbooks, including What Is Revealed When I Reveal It to You (dancing girl press, 2018). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lana Turner, the PEN Poetry Series, Pinwheel, Powder Keg, Sixth Finch, The Volta, and elsewhere, and her manuscript, Gone Song was a finalist for the 2018 National Poetry Series. She holds an MFA from Colorado State University and lives in Boise, where she runs a reading and workshop series called Sema.
 
 
 
 

LYD HAVENS

( boise, idaho )
Lyd Havens is a nationally touring poet and performer currently living in Boise, Idaho by way of Tucson, Arizona. Their work has previously been published in Winter Tangerine, Glass: a Journal of Poetry, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal, among others. They are the author of the chapbook I Gave Birth to All the Ghosts Here (Nostrovia! Press, 2018), and are currently working towards a BFA in Creative Writing at Boise State University. They were born on their due date, and have been intensely punctual to everything since.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

DAPHNE STANFORD

( boise, idaho )
Daphne Elizabeth Stanford writes poetry and creative nonfiction—as well as songs for vox/piano and dramatic works for the stage, on occasion. Since 2012, she’s hosted “The Poetry Show!” on KRBX/Radio Boise. She holds a BA in English from Reed College, an MAT in Secondary English Education from The University of Iowa, and an MFA in Creative Writing (poetry emphasis) from University of Oregon. Her work has been published by Caesura, Lingerpost Press, The Monarch Review, The Cabin: Writers in the Attic, Cliterature: All My Relations, Rabid Oak, Willawaw Jounal, and Reservoir. Her chapbook, The Inevitable Surfacing of Bodies, is forthcoming in 2019 from Dancing Girl Press.
 
 
 
 
 
 

AMANDA PEACHER

( boise, idaho )
Amanda Peacher works for the Mountain West News Bureau out of Boise State Public Radio. She’s an Idaho native who returned home after a decade of living and reporting in Oregon. She’s an award-winning reporter with a background in community engagement and investigative journalism. Amanda pedals her bike to work and spends weekends hiking the Boise foothills with her toddler and husband, baking unhealthy sweets, or feebly trying to get her garden to grow.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

KATE CONCANNON

( boise, idaho )
Kate Concannon is Managing Editor of the Mountain West News Bureau. She’s an award-winning journalist who has covered the West for more than two-and-a-half decades as a reporter, show producer, researcher and editor. She perfected her editing chops as the Western Bureau Chief for NPR for twelve years where she managed reporters across thirteen Western States. In her spare time Kate enjoys skiing and listening to live music, preferably with her husband and three sons.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

FRANKIE BARNHILL

( boise, idaho )
Frankie Barnhill is the host and producer of Wanna Know Idaho, Idaho’s people-powered podcast from Boise State Public Radio. She co-hosted Boise State Public Radio’s first podcast, Speaking of Serial, which won an Idaho Press Club award. Frankie’s work has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. The Missoula native spends most of her free time dreaming about owning a dog someday, going to concerts and serving on the board of Story Story Night.
 
 
 
 
 

LACEY DALEY

( boise, idaho )
Lacey Daley is a writer and editor in Boise, Idaho. She spends her days creating and coordinating digital content for Boise State Public Radio, the NPR station for southwest Idaho. She also produces and co-hosts the podcast You Know The Place. Daley received her MFA in fiction from Boise State University, where she served as Associate Editor for The Idaho Review. In her free time she’s experimenting in nonfiction and doing voiceover work in the community.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

JOEL WAYNE

( boise, idaho )
Joel Wayne is a producer and writer from Boise, Idaho. Wayne produces the NPR-affiliate programs Reader’s Corner and You Know The Place for Boise State Public Radio, and his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Chattahoochee Review, The Moth, and Salon, among other places. He has won the Silver Creek Writer’s Residency, the Lamar York Prize, and is a Pushcart nominee. Wayne serves as a judge for the annual Scholastic Writing Awards, and has a lovely bride, a cat, and some houseplants.