Dorothy Alexander is a poet as well as the editor and publisher of Village Books Press of Cheyenne, Okla., a small press established in 2001. Village Books Press has published more than 40 books of poetry, primarily by Oklahoma poets, as well as anthologies by Ghost Ranch (New Mexico) writers, journaling groups, and the Woody Guthrie Poetry Group, as well as several non-fiction memoir/essay collections. In the past five years, seven books released by Village Books Press have been named finalists in the Oklahoma Book Awards, two of which have been first-place winners in the poetry division. Alexander has written four poetry collections and two story/essay collections, and is currently working on a memoir about her late son.

Danita Berg is an assistant professor of writing at Oklahoma City University, where she also directs the new Red Earth Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing program. Her creative work has most recently appeared in The Houston Literary Review, Quay: A Journal of the Arts, and the collections Press Pause Moments: Essays about Life Transitions by Women Writers and Ain't Nobody That Can Sing Like Me: An Oklahoma Writing Anthology.

Lou Berney, an Oklahoma City native, has written feature screenplays and created TV pilots for, among others, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Focus Features, ABC, and Fox. He is the author of The Road to Bobby Joe, a collection of stories, and his short fiction has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, New England Review, Ploughshares, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. Gutshot Straight, his first novel, was published in January 2010. He is part of the Red Earth MFA faculty at OCU.

Jeanetta Calhoun Mish's first book, Tongue Tied Woman, won a national chapbook publication award; her second book, Work Is Love Made Visible, won three awards in 2010: the Western Heritage Award, Oklahoma Book Award, and the WILLA from Women Writing the West. She is the editor of Mongrel Empire Press, a CLMP small press established in 2007 dedicated to regional and unusual literary works, and also part of the Red Earth MFA faculty.

Gwendolyn Hooks has written eleven books and several magazine articles for children. She has written in a variety of genres, including eight fiction easy readers and three nonfiction books, and sells articles to magazines such as Highlights for Children and JAKES. In 2011, Stone Arch Books, Red Chair Press, and Bebop Books will publish seven more of her easy readers. Her Mystery of the Missing Dog, Three's A Crowd (Scholastic Book Fair selections) and Can I Have a Pet (Bebop Books) have sold more than 230,000 copies. Gwendolyn lives in Oklahoma City.

Abigail Keegan teaches British and Women's Literature at Oklahoma City University. She has published two previous books of poetry, The Feast of the Assumptions and Oklahoma Journey, as well as a critical book, Byron's Othered Self and Voice: Contexualizing the Homographic Signature. Her most recent book of poems, Depending on the Weather, was recently published by Village Books Press.