Judy Blunt

JUDY BLUNT’s memoir Breaking Clean, which received a Whiting Writers Award, is the antithesis of romanticized myths of the American West. Her beautifully crafted work illuminates the hard life on Montana cattle ranches forty years ago. Born into a third generation ranching family, married at eighteen into another, mother of three, Blunt struggled to escape the stifling confines of a patriarchal culture.

Kathryn Harrison

KATHRYN Harrison is the author of the novels Thicker Than Water, Exposure, Poison, The Binding Chair, as well as a memoir, The Kiss. Her essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harpers and other publications. Her latest novel, The Seal Wife, is a “delectable moody, erotic, provocative cross-cultural love story.”

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Haven Kimmel

With wry humor, HAVEN KIMMEL vividly portrays the quirky world of adults in a best-selling childhood memoir, A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Moorland Indiana. Kimmel’s affection for her characters and remarkable wit also mark her celebrated debut novel, The Solace of Leaving Early, a love story sparked with theological and philosophical debate.

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Elinor Lipman

ELINOR LIPMAN writes romantic comedy for readers who want to be “amused, moved, befriended, included.” She can make us laugh out loud as she converts serious subject matters into humor with the skill of an alchemist. All six of her books are in print, and her seventh, The Pursuit of Alice Thrift,, is due in June.

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Sharyn McCrumb

SHARYN McCRUMB’s eighteen novels and two short-story collections celebrate Appalachian history and folklore with such skill that they are studied in universities worldwide. Winner of six Notable Book Awards from The New York Times, she weaves a tale! The Songcatcher follows her own family history, beginning with a young boy kidnapped off the coast of Scotland in 1751.

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Gail Tsukiyama

GAIL TSUKIYAMA was born in San Francisco, California, to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father. Initially a poet, she now uses her cross-cultural experiences in all her novels, the latest of which is Dreaming Waters. She teaches at San Francisco State Universality and is book review editor for the on-line magazine Pacific Rim Voices.

Joyce Weatherford

A finalist for the Willa Cather Award, JOYCE WEATHERFORD’s debut novel, Heart of the Beast, has been lauded as “not a book, but a spell, an act of magic.” This saga of the American West told from a female perspective comes alive with fiercely rich details grounded in Weatherford’s own experiences growing up on a ranch in eastern Oregon.