About Us

Tamara Dean is the author of Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless, an essay collection forthcoming in 2025 from the University of Minnesota Press. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The American Scholar, Creative Nonfiction, The Georgia Review, the Guardian, One Story, Orion, Seneca Review, The Southern Review, Story Magazine, and other publications.

Deshawn McKinney is a writer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin working in whatever medium is best to tell the story. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, his work appears in journals such as Lolwe, Ploughshares, and Glass: A Journal of Poetry. Deshawn has created and performed around the world, from Italy to England. His debut chapbook, father forgive me, was published by Black Sunflowers Poetry Press in 2021.

Sara Roahen writes, edits, coaches, teaches, and otherwise dabbles in storytelling—for fun and for hire.

Her memoir, Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table, was the chosen reading for the One Book One New Orleans reading initiative in 2009, and it received the Louisiana Library Association’s Louisiana Literary Award in 2010.

Michael Graf is an Emmy Award winning filmmaker and was named one of the “Top 25 Screenwriters To Watch in 2021” by the International Screenwriters Association. He’s produced and optioned scripts include WINTER OF FROZEN DREAMS, THE LAST INDIAN WAR, THROWING HAMMERS and GOD LOVES THE PACKERS.

Christopher Chambers is the author of two books of fiction, Delta 88 and Kind of Blue, and former editor of Wisconsin People & Ideas, Midwest Review, Black Warrior Review and New Orleans Review. His work has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories and been noted in Best American Essays.