Allison Amend was born in Chicago on a day when the Cubs beat the Mets 2-0. She attended Stanford University and holds an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her work has received awards from and appeared in One Story, Black Warrior Review, StoryQuarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, the Atlantic Monthly, Prairie Schooner and Other Voices, among other publications. Her debut short story collection, Things That Pass for Love, was published in October 2008 by OV Books. Visit her on the web at  www.allisonamend.com.

Mickey Hess taught part-time for several universities in Kentucky and Indiana before moving to his current position as Assistant Professor of English at Rider University. His books include Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Music, Movement, and Culture (Greenwood, 2007), and Is Hip Hop Dead? The Past, Present, and Future of America's Most Wanted Music (Praeger, 2007). His writing has appeared in Ninth Letter, Punk Planet, and Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: Best of McSweeney's Humor Category. He lives in Philadelphia.

Jane Hertenstein lives in Chicago in the Uptown neighborhood and has been involved in community building for the past twenty-five years. Jane has published three books: A young adult novel titled Beyond Paradise; Home is Where We Live, a picture book about life at a homeless shelter as seen through the eyes of a young girl; and Orphan Girl, the story of a bag lady Jane met at the shelter. Orphan Girl was highly praised in the Chicago Tribune Sunday Book Section as well as in other national review journals.

Sharon Solwitz's story collection Blood and Milk (Sarabande, 1996) received the 1997 Carl Sandberg award and the Midland Author's prize for adult fiction, and was a finalist for the 1997 National Jewish Book Award. Her stories have been published widely; their awards include the Pushcart, the Nelson Algren and the Katherine Ann Porter. Her novel Bloody Mary (Sarabande, Inc.) came out in 2003. She teaches at Purdue University in W. Lafayette, and lives in Chicago, where she and her husband poet Barry Silesky edit Another Chicago Magazine.