Janet Fitch

Janet Fitch is the bestselling author of White Oleander, an Oprah Book Club selection translated into 28 languages and made into a feature film; Paint it Black, also widely translated and adapted for the screen. Her most recent books are two epics of the Russian Revolution, The Revolution of Marina M. and Chimes of a Lost Cathedral. Her short stories appear in Los Angeles Noir and Palm Springs Noir, and a film of her noir story “The Method” has just wrapped. Long time faculty at the Community of Writers, Fitch hosts her popular Writing Wednesdays writing series on Facebook and Youtube. [F]  www.janetfitchwrites.com

Photo credit: Cat Gwynn

Sands Hall

Sands Hall is the author most recently of the award-winning memoir, Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology (Counterpoint Press). Blackstone Audio produced the audio book, read by the author. Her novel, Catching Heaven (Ballantine), is a Willa Award finalist. Her prize-winning essays and stories have appeared in such journals as Alta Journal, New England Review, Iowa Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.  Sands co-directs the Nonfiction/Memoir Program at the Community of Writers. [F/NF] sandshall.com

Photo Credit: Tracy Hall

Krys Lee

Krys Lee is the author of the story collection Drifting House and the novel How I Became a North Korean, and the translator of two books by Young-ha Kim. She is the recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature and the Story Prize Spotlight Award, the Honor Title in Adult Fiction Literature from the Asian/Pacific American Libraries Association, a Granta New Voices pick, and was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the BBC International Story Prize. She teaches creative writing at Yonsei University, Underwood International College. www.kryslee.com

Photo Credit: Matt Douma

Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Margaret Wilkerson Sexton studied creative writing at Dartmouth College and law at UC Berkeley. Her most recent novel, On The Rooftop, was a September 2022 Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick. Her second novel, The Revisioners, won a 2020 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work and was a national bestseller as well as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her debut novel, A Kind of Freedom, was long-listed for the National. Book Award. She lives in Oakland with her family. [F] margaretwilkersonsexton.com

Photo Credit: Smeeta Mahanti