Katherine Bode-Lang was born and raised in western Michigan, where she attended Hope College. As a girl, Katherine was most influenced by two landscapes: Lake Michigan and northwest Washington, where her paternal grandparents lived and where her family now resides. After graduating with a dual-degree in English and Women’s Studies from Hope, Katherine moved to Tucson, Arizona, where she worked for The Drawing Studio, a non-profit artists’ cooperative. Katherine moved to Pennsylvania to attend graduate school. She earned her MFA in poetry at Penn State University, where she taught creative writing and composition and later worked as the Assistant Director of the Methodology Center. She is now the Director of Education and Quality Management in the Office for Research Protections. She lives in central Pennsylvania with her husband, Andrew, and their daughter.
Laura Donnelly’s second collection of poetry, Midwest Gothic, received the Snyder Prize from Ashland Poetry Press and was published in fall 2020. Her first collection, Watershed, won the 2013 Cider Press Review Editors’ Prize. Her poems have appeared in Indiana Review, Passages North, Mississippi Review, and online at Missouri Review and Poets.org. Originally from Michigan, she lives in Upstate New York and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Oswego.
Ethel Rohan is an award-winning novelist, essayist, and short story writer. Her just-published book, In the Event of Contact, won the Dzanc Short Story Collection Prize, and she's going to read an excerpt from that tonight. Born in Ireland, she lives in San Francisco.
Tobias Carroll is the author of the books Political Sign, Reel, and Transitory. He is the managing editor of Vol.1 Brooklyn and writes a monthly column for Words Without Borders.