JESSICA KEITH is a professional lecturer at San Diego State University and as the mother of three littles. When she's not teaching cross-cultural engagement, managing her own tiny humans, or making a snack, she's promoting her debut memoir, "Saying Inshallah With Chutzpah," a gefilte fish out of water story, of her experience as a Jewish woman working for a Muslim government. She has worked for two foreign governments, the Consulate of Kuwait and the Embassy of Spain. A Community Action Grant from the American Association of University Women was awarded to her to produce her documentary, Beyond Our Boundaries, distributed by Berkely Media. She has been published in The New York Times, Kveller, McSweeney's, The Nosher, Scary Mommy, Uptown News, Sammiches & Psych Meds, PJ Library, Medium, and BLUNTmoms. Publications are chronicled at Jessica's website, www.jessicakeithwriter.com. Jessica lives in California with her soulmate and their three children, the family's first generation of Black Jews.

JAMES MURREN is an award-winning outdoor adventure/travel writer. A Peace Corps Writer (Honduras, 97-99), he's written and published on his international development work and travels in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and various Latin American sites. He'll be reading from his three books: Whispers of Honduras: A Peace Corps Experience; Ethiopian Vignettes: Seeing is Believing; and Go Here, Go There: Travel and Work. Limited copies of all 3 books will be available for purchase ($5 each/cash only). The theme for the evening for his reading session will be "global environmental challenges through a local lens." You can learn more about his writings and read selections from his portfolio at his website, jamesmurren.com. James also teaches environmental politics, global food security, and sustainability at SDSU.

JAMES STOUT is a journalist with a PhD in modern European history. His work focuses on climate change, migration, and conflict and has taken him to Syria, Iraq, myanmar, and the Marshall Islands in the last two years. He’s written for National Geographic, Esquire, The Nation, and The Wall Street Journal, and is working on a book for AK Press. 

Sivani Babu is the co-founder and CEO of Hidden Compass — a women-founded independent journalism outlet ending the era of clickbait. Babu is also an award-winning journalist and nature photographer. Her work frequently meshes history, science, and polar exploration, and has been published widely in outlets such as BBC Travel, AFAR, Best Women’s Travel Writing, and Narrative. Her stories, as well as stories she’s edited, have been recognized multiple times by the Best American Travel Writing series, and her photographs have been exhibited around the world from San Diego to the Sorbonne. A former federal public defender, Sivani also teaches storytelling as a tool for advocacy to law students across the country.

Mateo Hoke is an award-winning writer, editor, interviewer, photographer, video producer, and bartender. His books include Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life Under Occupation (McSweeney's, 2014), and Six By Ten: Stories from Solitary (Haymarket, 2018). His work has appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Harper's, Rolling Stone, AJ+, Pacific Standard, Lucky Peach, McSweeney's, Atlas Obscura, and Guernica, among other publications. Currently, he’s exploring the potential of regional media as executive editor of San Diego Magazine.

Margarita Pintado Burgos (Puerto Rico) is the author of Ficción de venado/ Fiction of the Deer (2012), Una muchacha que se parece a mí/ A Girl Who Looks Like Me (Institute of Puerto Rican Culture Poetry Book Award, 2016), Simultánea, la marea/ Simultaneous, the tide (2022), and Ojo en Celo/ Eye in Heat, forthcoming 2024, and for which she won the Ambroggio Award, given by the Academy of American Poets and the University of Arizona Press. In 2022, she was awarded the Letras Boricuas fellowship, given by the Mellon Foundation, which seeks to promote and elevate the voices of emergent and established Puerto Rican writers. Pintado holds a Ph.D. in Spanish from Emory University (Atlanta, GA), and is a professor of Language and Literature at Point Loma Nazarene University (San Diego, CA). She co-directs the poetry website Distropika.

CAROLINE FOWLER DAVIS writes young adult science fiction about fierce girls, the ocean, and the future. Represented by the literary agency behind Hunger Games, Caroline is preparing to pitch her first novel, May We Please the Sea, to publishers this fall. The inspiration for the book first came to her while scuba diving in the San Francisco aquarium' shark tank, where she worked as a dive volunteer, and one time accidentally kicked a shark in the face. Set between a climate-devastated island and an underwater station of scientists, and incorporating recent science innovations that tackle climate change, May We Please the Sea takes the reader on an underwater adventure through family, survival, and finding your identity in a world set on defining it for you. If you'd like to follow the book's publishing journey, sign up for Caroline's newsletter at carolinefowlerdavis.com.

JENIFFER THOMPSON is a personal branding coach, book marketing strategist, and publishing consultant. She co-founded Monkey C Media in 2004, an award-winning book cover and author website design house. She is also the host of The Premise podcast, co-founder of the San Diego Writers Festival, and serves on the International Memoir Writers Association board. Learn more at MonkeyCMedia.com, subscribe to her author marketing tips at JenifferThompson.com, and listen to her podcast at ThePremisePod.com.

EILENE ZIMMERMAN is a journalist and social worker. For three decades, she has written about business, technology and social issues for national magazines and newspapers. She was a columnist for The New York Times for eight years and since 2003 has been a regular contributor to the newspaper. Her memoir, "Smacked" was published by Random House in Feb. 2020. In addition to writing, Eilene works as a clinical social worker in San Diego, California.

When she was a kid, MICHELE BIGLEY thought she would be a fashion designer. But a sailing trip around the planet gave her a serious case of itchy feet. To keep traveling she convinced editors she should write about her wild exploits. For over two decades, she's reported on baseball culture in Japan, #vanlife, sex shows in Amsterdam, posh hotels with secrets, crappy hotels, hula, dirt and fantasy soccer for more publications than she can remember. These days she's into inspiring travelers to gallivant in a more regenerative way, sharing climate solutions, and reporting on Indigenous wisdom and other interesting humans. She teaches writing at San Diego State and teaches dance at Liberty Station. When she's not multitasking, you'll find her working on her community garden, paddleboarding, and making big plans for her next adventure. 

LESLIE FERGUSON enjoyed a career as a high school English teacher and college writing instructor for two decades before relocating to San Diego to pursue work in the publishing industry. She holds an MFA in creative writing and an MA in English literature from Chapman University. Currently, Leslie sits on the board of directors of the International Memoir Writers Association, and she loves performing original stories and poems, which often center on hope and the consequences of trauma. As an editor and book doctor, one of Leslie’s passions is helping other writers tell their own stories with courage and emotional honesty. Her multi-award-winning debut memoir, When I Was Her Daughter, tells her story of madness, loss, and survival as a foster kid in the 1980s.

KATRINA WOZNICKI began her career as a staff reporter for a small-town daily newspaper in New Hampshire, and over the past 25 years, her writing has taken her around the world. Her essays and reporting have appeared on the cover of AAA's Westways magazine as well as in The Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Catapult, U.S. News & World Report, and National Geographic Traveler, among others. She is represented by literary agent Barbara Poelle, and her first novel is out on submission. She divides her time between Los Angeles and Twentynine Palms, and is always up for a road trip.

KATIE MANNING is a poet, professor of writing at PLNU, and founding editor of Whale Road Review. She’s the author of Tasty Other, which won the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award, and her most recent collections are Hereverent (Agape Editions, 2023) and How to Play (Louisiana Literature Press, 2022). Her poem “What to Expect” was featured on the Poetry Unbound podcast, and her poems have appeared in American Journal of Nursing, december, New Letters, Poet Lore, Verse Daily, and many other venues.

JANE MUSCHENETZ is a Ukrainian-born, Russian-speaking, Jewish refugee who arrived in the U.S. as a child. Recognized for excellence in Poetry Performance by the County of San Diego, Jane is a 2023 City of Encinitas Exhibiting Artist and Director of Partnerships for the San Diego Entertainment & Arts Guild. Her debut collection, All the Bad Girls Wear Russian Accents (Kelsay Books, 2023), was shortlisted for the Jacar Press Chapbook Prize. Jane is the winner of the 2022 Good Life Review Poetry Prize, an MIT grad, mom and coffee enthusiast. Connect with Jane's work at her website, PalmFrondZoo.com and in various publications. 

MICHAEL KLAM is the executive editor of the San Diego Poetry Annual (SDPA) and editor-in-chief of Imagine the bilingual edition of SDPA. He organizes and hosts San Diego Central Library's video series, Conversations with Poets. His publishers are Puna Press and Garden Oak Press. Follow SDPA on Instagram @sdpoetryannual.

RONIT PLANK has been published in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, Hippocampus, The Iowa Review; she has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction. She is author of the story collection Home is a Made-Up Place and the memoir When She Comes Back about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation. She is an editor and a memoir coach. She hosts a weelkly podcast, Let’s Talk Memoir, featuring interviews with memoirists about craft, the creative process, and the writing life.

JENNIFER COBURN is the author of Cradles of the Reich, a historical novel about three very different women living at a Nazi Lebensborn breeding home at the start of World War ll. She has also published a mother-daughter travel memoir, We'll Always Have Paris, as well as six contemporary women's novels. Additionally, Jennifer has contributed to five literary anthologies, including A Paris All Your Own. Jennifer lives in San Diego with her husband, William.

MARISA CRANE is a writer, basketball player, and sweatpants enthusiast. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Joyland, No Tokens, TriQuarterly, Passages North, Prairie Schooner, The Offing, Florida Review, Catapult, Lit Hub, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. They are the author of the debut novel, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, which was a New York Times Editor's Pick. It was named a most anticipated book by Autostraddle, Lambda Literary, Lit Hub, Ms. Independent Book Review, LGBTQReads, and more. Goodreads also named it one of the buzziest debut novels of the year. It received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, BookPage, Independent Book Review, and Library Journal, and Kirkus called it "an anthem for queer love and solidarity that rises above the dystopian cacophony." 

BRENT CRANE is a freelance reporter based in San Diego. Brent’s features focus on a wide range of subjects, and have been published in The New Yorker, the New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Economist and elsewhere. Brent is also a regular contributor to The Wire China, an award-winning China-focused investigative business magazine. Previously, Brent was a reporter for the Phnom Penh Post newspaper in Cambodia.

SABRINA MEDORA is a national food writer and brand marketing consultant in the food & beverage space to globally-recognized hospitality, restaurant, and consumer brands. With a Certificate of Outstanding Achievement from The James Beard Foundation, a Level II Honors ranking from WSET, and experience working directly with renowned food personalities including Antoni Porowski, Padma Lakshmi, Richard Blais, Trisha Yearwood, José Andrés, and others, Medora is known for her persuasive editorial and media content. As a national food writer, Medora’s pieces have appeared in award-winning publications including Food & Wine, Eater, Plate Magazine, The Kitchn, Wine Enthusiast, Fodor’s, and more.

Michelle Dowd is a journalism professor and contributor to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Book Review, The Alpinist, Catapult, LA Parent Magazine and other national publications. She has been recognized as a Longreads Top 5 for her article The Thing with Feathers, on the relationship between environmentalism and hope and nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize.Her popular Modern Love column in The New York Times inspired her memoir, Forager: Field Notes on Surviving a Family Cult, which showcases her life growing up on an isolated mountain in California as part of an apocalyptic cult, and how she found her way out of poverty and illness by drawing on the gifts of the wilderness.

Alexandra Gillespie would jump into shark-infested waters for a story — and already has in Belize, Grand Bahama, and Sudan as the digital editor of Scuba Diving magazine. Now a freelance writer, she continues to tell stories about water travel, outdoor adventure, and food for outlets including National Geographic, Outside Online, and NPR.

Lyn Jensen has been a freelance journalist in Southern California since the 80s. Her byline has appeared in numerous periodicals including the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, LA Weekly, Los Angeles Reader, Music Connection, Bloglandia, and Senior Reporter of Orange County, where she writes a monthly column, "Life After Mother," which deals with estate and probate issues from personal experience. She blogs about music, manga, and more at lynjensen.blogspot.com and graduated from UCLA with a major in Theater Arts.