A native of Traverse City, Michigan, STEPHANIE CARPENTER is the author of Missing Persons: Stories, which won the 2017 Press 53 Award in Short Fiction; her work has also appeared in journals including Copper Nickel, The Missouri Review, and Witness. She's an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Michigan Technological University. Moral Treatment is her debut novel.

Acclaimed as the Oliver Sacks of fiction and the Michael Crichton of brain science, Lisa Genova is the New York Times bestselling author of More or Less Maddy, Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, Inside the O’Briens, and Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting. Still Alice was adapted into an Oscar–winning film starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart. Lisa graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. She is featured in the documentary films To Not Fade Away and Have You Heard About Greg. Her TED talks on Alzheimer’s disease and memory have been viewed over eleven million times. Her latest novel is More or Less Maddy.

Jordyn Taylor is the former deputy digital editor at Men’s Health magazine and the award-winning author of the young adult novels The Paper Girl of Paris, Don't Breathe a Word, and The Revenge Game. She is also an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Jordyn was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, and now lives in New York. Her latest noel is Wicked Darlings.

Kim (Freilich) Dower (City Poet Laureate of West Hollywood from October 2016 – October 2018) has published six highly acclaimed collections of poetry all from Red Hen Press. Her most recent book, What She Wants: Poems on Obsession, Desire, Despair, Euphoria, was called “witty, sultry and thoughtful” by the Washington Post, and her bestselling, I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom, an Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist, was called a “fantastic collection” by The Washington Post, “impressively insightful, thought-provoking, and truly memorable” by The Midwest Book Review and Shelf-Awareness said, “These gorgeous gems are energized by the sheer power of her wit and irreverent style.” Air Kissing on Mars, Kim’s first collection, was described by the Los Angeles Times as, “sensual and evocative . . . seamlessly combining humor and heartache,” Slice of Moon was called “unexpected and sublime,” by “O” magazine, and Sunbathing on Tyrone Power’s Grave, won the 2020 Independent Publishers Book Award Gold Medal for Poetry. Kim’s work has been featured in numerous literary journals including Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac," and her poems are included in several anthologies. She teaches poetry workshops for UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, and the West Hollywood Library. Born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, Kim lives with her family in West Hollywood, CA. To learn more about Kim visit her website: www.kimdowerpoetry.com

Jessica Soffer is the author of This Is a Love Story and Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots. She grew up in New York City, attended Connecticut College, and earned her MFA at Hunter College. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, Real Simple, Saveur, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and on NPR’s Selected Shorts. She teaches creative writing to small groups and in the corporate space and lives in Sag Harbor, New York, with her husband, young daughter, and dog.

Philip Kenney is an author and psychotherapist. His most recent work is a novel entitled, The Mercy Dialogues. That work examines the power of dialogue, in the service of love, to bridge seemingly impossible divisions between people. Prior to that, in 2022, his chapbook of haiku entitled, Only This Step, was published by Finishing Line Press. In 2018, his first non-fiction book, The Writer’s Crucible: Meditations on Emotion, Being and Creativity, was a finalist for The Red City Review Non-Fiction Book of the Year. That work was written to support writers with the emotional vulnerabilities they face living a creative life. On occasion, Philip gives workshops based on The Writer’s Crucible at The Attic Institute in Portland.Those workshops enable authors to understand and work with the emotions that complicate the creative process. In 2018, his essay, The Rebirth of Masculinity: What We Can Learn from Harvey Weinstein and Co. was published in issue #7 of The Timberline Review. 

Rachel Kaplan, MA, MFT, is a licensed psychotherapist with a thriving practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. Creator and host of the acclaimed podcast Healing Feeling Sh*t Show, she is active on a variety of social media channels and has published multiple features in Common Ground. Kaplan has studied yoga, meditation, and hands-on healing practices in India and Nepal, earned a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and trained in cutting-edge trauma modalities such as EMDR. Her first book is, Feel, Heal, and Let That Sh*t Go: Your Guide to Emotional Resilience and Lasting Self-Love.  She divides her time between Oakland and Joshua Tree, California. More information at TheFeelingsMovement.com.

Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew is the author of Swinging on the Garden Gate: A Memoir of Bisexuality & Spirit, now in its second edition; the novel Hannah, Delivered; a collection of personal essays, On the Threshold:  Home, Hardwood, and Holiness; the chapbook, A Map to Mercy, due out winter 2025; and three books on writing: Writing the Sacred Journey:  The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir; Living Revision: A Writer’s Craft as Spiritual Practice, winner of the silver Nautilus Award; and The Release: Finding Creativity and Freedom After the Writing is Done.  She is a founding member of The Eye of the Heart Center, where she teaches writing as a transformational practice and hosts an online writing community.  She is a recipient of two Minnesota State Arts Board artists’ fellowships, the Loft Career Initiative Grant, and is a Minnesota Book Awards finalist.  She lives in Minneapolis with her wife, daughter, and two rambunctious cats.  You can learn more about Elizabeth at www.elizabethjarrettandrew.com and www.spiritualmemoir.com.

Kate Winkler Dawson is a seasoned documentary producer, podcaster, and true-crime historian whose work has appeared in The New York Times, WCBS News and ABC News Radio, “PBS NewsHour,” and “Nightline.” She is the creator of three hit podcasts (BB has about 1.5 million downloads a month): “Tenfold More Wicked” and “Wicked Words,” and the cohost of the “Buried Bones” podcast on the Exactly Right network. She is the author of American Sherlock, Death in the Air, All That Is Wicked, The Sinners All Bow, and is a professor of journalism at The University of Texas at Austin.

Nancy Slonim Aronie has been a commentator for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. She was a Visiting Writer at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, wrote a monthly column in McCall’s magazine and was the recipient of the Eye of The Beholder Artist in Residence award at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Nancy won teacher of the year award for all three years she taught at Harvard University for Robert Coles.

Bill Kenower will be hosting an in-person Fearless Writing Retreat January 26-31 in Portland, OR.
Space is limited! Hope to see you there:
Bill's website: https://www.williamkenower.com/
Retreat website: https://www.portlandretreathouse.com/fearless-writing-with-bill-kenower