CAMILLE ACKER (she/her) is the author of the short story collection Training School for Negro Girls. She grew up in Washington, D.C. and holds a B.A. in English from Howard University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New Mexico State University. Her writing has received support from Tin House, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, and Electric Literature, among other publications. She has taught students across the country at universities and in community arts organizations. In 2020, she was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and in 2022, she was named a Fellow by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. She has two books under contract with Random House and lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her partner.

LORRAINE AVILA (she/they), a Bronxite with Dominican roots, is the author of The Making of Yolanda La Bruja, Malcriada and Other Stories, and Celestial Summer. Her YA debut, The Making of Yolanda, was voted one of 2023’s Best Books for Teens by NYPL and garnered praise from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, Booklist, and Shelf-Awareness. Avila received a BA in English from Fordham University, an MAT in Secondary Education from New York University, and an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh. She is a seasoned literacy educator; her teaching experience spans from secondary education to undergraduate level. She’s also taught writing workshops at schools and organizations like NYU, Brown University, Stanford University, and more. Avila splits her time between Pittsburgh, The Bronx, and the Dominican Republic.

V. CASTRO (she/her) is a two-time Bram Stoker Award-nominated Mexican-American writer from San Antonio, Texas, now residing in the UK. She writes horror, erotic horror, and science fiction. Her books include The Haunting of Alejandra, Alien: Vasquez, Mestiza Blood, The Queen of the Cicadas, Out of Aztlan, Las Posadas, Rebel Moon (official Netflix film novelization), and Goddess of Filth. Her forthcoming novel is Immortal Pleasures from Del Rey. Connect with Violet via Instagram and Twitter @vlatinalondon or www.vcastrostories.com. She can also be found on Blue Sky, Goodreads, and Amazon. TikTok@vcastrobooks

MINDA HONEY’s (she/her) debut memoir, THE HEARTBREAK YEARS, is a hilarious and intimate portrait of a Black woman finding who she is and who she wants to be, one bad date at a time. Her essays on politics and relationships have appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Oxford American, Teen Vogue, and Longreads. Her work is featured in “Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger”, “A Measure of Belonging: Writers of Color on the New American South”, and “Sex and the Single Woman: 24 Writers Reimagine Helen Gurley Brown's Cult Classic. She is the editor of Black Joy at Reckon — the newsletter has nearly 60K subscribers.

MELANIA LUISA MARTE (she/her) is a writer, poet, and musician from New York living between the Dominican Republic and Texas. Her viral poem “Afro-Latina” was featured by Instagram on their IG TV for National Poetry Month and has garnered over nine million views. Her work has also been featured by Ain’t I Latina, AfroPunk, The Root, Teen Vogue, Telemundo, Refinery29, PopSugar, and elsewhere. Plantains and Our Becoming is her debut.