The Virginia G. Piper
Center for Creative Writing

Mary Sojourner's latest short story collection, The Talker, was published by Torrey House Press 2017. She's published three novels: Sisters of the Dream, Going Through Ghosts and 29; the short story collection, Delicate, essay collection, Bonelight: Ruin and Grace in the New Southwest, Bonelight: rituals of loss and desire; two memoirs, She Bets Her Life and Solace. She was chosen as a Distinguished Writer in Residence in 2007 by the Virginia C. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. She teaches at writing conferences throughout the Southwest, including the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference; and has taken part in residencies throughout America. Find more about Sojourner at http://www.breakthroughwriting.net.

Mark Athitakis is a journalist and critic whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Humanities Magazine, and numerous other publications. His 2017 book, The New Midwest (Belt Publishing), is a critical study of contemporary fiction set in the region, and he has been a featured speaker on the subject for BBC Radio, the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, and other venues. A member of the board of the National Book Critics Circle, he lives in Chandler.

Saretta Morgan is a writer and artist who uses text and objects to consider relationships between privacy and narrative forms. She is the author of the chapbooks, Feeling Upon Arrival (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2018) and room for a counter interior (Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs, 2017) as well as a forthcoming full length collection Plan Upon Arrival (Selva Oscura/Three Count Pour). She was a 2016-2017 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Resident and has created interactive text-based projects for art institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and Dia Beacon. Her work has received support from the Jerome Foundation, Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, among others. Saretta received a B.A. in writing from Columbia University and an MFA from Pratt Institute. She teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.