Danit Brown

Danit Brown is the author of TELEVISION FOR WOMEN, a novel, and ASK FOR A CONVERTIBLE, a linked collection of short stories that was named a Washington Post Best Book of 2008 and winner of a 2009 American Book Award. Her stories have appeared in numerous literary journals including Story, One Story, and Glimmer Train, and have been featured on National Public Radio. She teaches at Albion College.

Elaine Hsieh Chou

Elaine Hsieh Chou is a Taiwanese American author and screenwriter from California. Her multi-genre short story collection WHERE ARE YOU REALLY FROM was named a Best Book of 2025 by TIME, NPR and Electric Literature, while her debut novel DISORIENTATION was a New York Times Editors' Choice Book, NYPL Young Lions Finalist and Thurber Prize for American Humor Finalist. The novel was optioned by AppleTV+ with Elaine set to adapt.​

A former Rona Jaffe Graduate Fellow at NYU, her Pushcart Award-winning short fiction appears in Guernica, Black Warrior Review, Tin House Online, Ploughshares and The Atlantic, while her essays appear in The Cut and Vanity Fair. She is the recipient of the 2023 Fred R. Brown Literary Award. As a writing and workshop instructor, she has taught fiction for NYU, The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program, Catapult, Accent Society, Kundiman and Tin House. Her work has been supported by the Harry Ransom Center, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Hedgebrook writers-in-residence program.​

Elaine was a 2023 Sundance Episodic Lab fellow; her selected pilot GET HOME SAFE is an hour-long social thriller. Her half-hour pilot adapted from her short story, BANANA TREE GHOST, was optioned by Legendary Entertainment following a three-way bidding war. She was named a 2024 Series Creator to Watch by Gotham.

Garnett Kilberg Cohen

Garnett Cohen has published four collections of short stories. Her most recent collection, Cravings, (the University of Wisconsin Press, 2023), was called “impressive…eloquent, original, moving, memorable" by The Midwest Review. Her short stories have appeared widely and garnered awards from Crazyhorse, Michigan Quarterly Review, december Magazine, and the Illinois Arts Council. Her nonfiction has also been published in numerous magazines, including Brevity, The Antioch Review, The New Yorker online, Memoir Magazine, and elsewhere. Two of her published essays were named Notable Essays by Best American Essays. A Professor Emerita at Columbia College Chicago where she taught for over 30 years, Garnett has also been an editor at six literary magazines.

Richard Thomas

Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of eight books—Disintegration and Breaker (Penguin Random House Alibi), Transubstantiate, Staring Into the Abyss, Herniated Roots, Tribulations, Spontaneous Human Combustion (Turner Publishing), and The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books). His over 165 stories in print include The Best Horror of the Year (Volume Eleven), Cemetery Dance (twice), Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders (Bram Stoker winner), PANK, storySouth, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Midwestern Gothic, Shallow Creek, The Seven Deadliest, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Qualia Nous, Chiral Mad (numbers 2-4), PRISMS, Pantheon, and Shivers VI. He was also the editor of four anthologies: The New Black and Exigencies (Dark House Press), The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press) and Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, Thriller, and Audie awards. In his spare time he is a columnist at Lit Reactor. He was the Editor-in-Chief at Dark House Press and Gamut Magazine. For more information visit www.whatdoesnotkillme.com or contact Paula Munier at Talcott Notch.

Jess Dallow

Jess Dallow has a BFA in Writing for Film and Television from the University of the Arts and worked in entertainment for eight years before returning to her home state of NY where she worked in the publishing industry for a decade. Jess specialized in YA, adult. contemporary, thriller, romance, crime, & women's fiction.

Jess is an editor for Writer's Digest's 2nd Draft Critique and Editing Services.

Rebecca Drake

Rebecca Drake is an avid reader who aspires to design books someday. She holds both a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Integrated Design. After spending several years as an English teacher, she now works as the event coordinator for her favorite indie bookstore and a 2nd draft editor for Writer’s Digest. Rebecca hopes to spend the rest of her life collecting lots of books, meeting inspiring authors, and indulging her love for creative writing.

Rebecca is interested in these genres : literary fiction, magical realism, science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery/detective, thriller, YA fiction, and MG fiction.

Nikoletta Gjoni

Nikoletta Gjoni is a writer, editor, and writing coach who loves to work with writers both new and experienced. Her stories have appeared in multiple anthologies and have been previously nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau short story prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction. Originally from Albania, she especially loves stories that grapple with immigration, identity, family dynamics, and folklore and mythology. As an editor and coach, Nikoletta loves to perform developmental and line edits to really help manuscripts shine. She specializes in literary fiction, historical fiction, creative nonfiction or memoir, and YA. She loves all things creepy, mythical, historical, and honest.

Niki is an editor for Writer's Digest's 2nd Draft Critique and Editing Services.