Chia-Chia Lin is the author of the novels The Unpassing (FSG 2019) and the forthcoming Tether (forthcoming from FSG in 2027). The Unpassing won the 2020 Clark Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critic Circle’s John Leonard Prize and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.

Lin received an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times, Zyzzyva, and more. She lives in the Peninsula.

Sarah Stone is the author of four books, including Marriage to the Sea (March 2026); Hungry Ghost Theater, a finalist for the 38th annual Northern California Book Awards; and, with Ron Nyren, Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers. Her work has appeared in Image, Ploughshares, StoryQuarterly, The Millions, Scoundrel Time, The Believer, 100 Word Story, CRAFT, and Alta Online, among other places. She has also written for Korean public television, reported on human rights in Burundi, and looked after orphan chimpanzees at the Jane Goodall Institute.

Carvell Wallace is a writer and podcaster who has contributed to The New Yorker, GQ, New York Times Magazine, Pitchfork, MTV News, and Al Jazeera. His debut memoir, Another Word For Love (MCD, 2024), is a Kirkus Finalist in Nonfiction and a winner of the PEN Oakland prize. He was a 2019 Peabody Award nominee, a 2022 National Magazine Award Finalist, a 2023 winner of the Mosaic Prize in Journalism, and a 2025 Ucross Fellow. He lives in Oakland. 

Dāshaun Washington is a poet from Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His work has received support from Yaddo, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Lighthouse Works, Ucross Foundation, Millay Arts, and beyond. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Poem-a-Day, New England Review, The Nation, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere. He currently lives in San Francisco and is a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, where he was previously a Wallace Stegner Fellow.