​Poet, critic, and memoirist David Biespiel is the author of numerous books of poetry, most recently Republic Café (2019), Charming Gardeners (2014), and The Book of Men and Women (2013), winner of the Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry. The founder and president of the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters, he is a longtime faculty member and poet-in-residence at Oregon State University.

​ Donna Henderson is the author of four collections of poems, two of which (Transparent Woman and The Eddy Fence) were finalists for the Oregon Book Award in Poetry. Her poems, song lyrics, essays, reviews and artwork appear in journals, anthologies, exhibits and recordings, and her ongoing series of reflective essays,"Are You With Me Here," can be found on Substack. Send Word, Donna's newest collection of poems, was released this summer by Riparian Press. A practicing psychotherapist, Donna lives in Maupin, Oregon with her husband, Rich Sutliff.   

Sam Roxas-Chua 姚 is the author of Saying Your Name Three Times Underwater, Echolalia in Script, and Fawn Language. His poems, artworks, and asemic writings have appeared in journals including Narrative, December Magazine, Cream City Review and an essay/review of his two recent books appears in the Georgia Review and Rhino Poetry. His poetry sequence Diary of Collected Summers was awarded the Missouri Review’s Miller Audio Prize.

Mule On Fire bring their own particular Northwest weave of blues, folk, jazz, and traditional music. Mule on Fire plays frequently in Portland and throughout the Willamette Valley, and has been the featured band at the Oregon Book Awards and the Portland Book Festival. They also feature as the house band for the ever-popular Poetry Karaoke event for Portland Lit Crawl.

Kate Hope day is the author of In the Quick and If, Then. She holds a BA from Bryn Mawr College and a PhD in English from the University of Pittsburgh. She was an associate producer at HBO. She lives in Oregon with her husband and their two children.

Kathleen Dean Moore, a philosopher, is the award-winning author of a dozen books about our cultural and moral relation to the wild, reeling world. Her 2021-22 books are Take Heart: Encouragement for Earth’s Weary Lovers, illustrated by the fiercely funny Canadian artist Bob Haverluck, and Earth’s Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World. In the summer, Kathy writes from a wilderness cabin where two creeks and a bear trail meet a tidal cove in Alaska. In the winter, she lives in Corvallis, Oregon, thus ensuring cold, wet weather all year long.

Karelia Stetz-Waters (she/her) writes sapphic genre romance. She loves writing happily-ever-afters for her women-loving-women heroines. She’s passionate about spreading cliteracy and writing sex positive stories that encourage readers to celebrate their sexuality. In her free time, she collects anything with a clitoris on it, marvels at her pug’s acuity at finding crumbs, and enjoys her own happily-ever-after with her wife of 20+ years.

Tracy Daugherty  is the author of six novels, a novella collection, short story collections, personal essays, essays on literature and writing, as well as biographies of Donald Barthelme, Joseph Heller, Joan Didion, Billy Lee Brammer, and Mary Evershed. He is a five-time winner of the Oregon Book Award. At Oregon State University, he helped found the Masters of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing, and is now Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing, Emeritus. 

Steven Moore is the author of The Longer We Were There: A Memoir of a Part-Time Soldier (University of Georgia Press, 2019) and the forthcoming essay collection The Distance From Slaughter County: Lessons From Flyover Country (University of North Carolina Press, 2023). He is the recipient of the AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction and the Bradley & Stuckey-French Prize for the Essay. He holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from Oregon State University and lives in Portland, Oregon

Mike McInally has been writing and editing for a living since he was a young reporter in Montana. Now he uses those skills outside of a newsroom setting. In his free time, he’s reading, watching movies, running, tending to the insane demands of two cats, or listening to music (although his hopes of learning to play the saxophone remain on hold).