Rosellen Brown has published ten books – novels, short stories, poetry, essays – and has lived in almost as many places – New York, Boston, San Francisco, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Texas and, currently, Chicago. After many years on the faculty of the University of Houston and more than a dozen summers leading the Spoleto (Italy) Writers’ Workshop, she now teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Marco Cervantes, a professor and MC/DJ/producer, was born and raised in Houston. He researches and teaches courses on links between Mexican American and African American culture.  As hip-hop artist Mexican step-grandfather, he writes and performs pieces about the U.S. Southwest, querying U.S./Mexico border policies as well as local city and state politics. In 2009, Cervantes was awarded a Ford Fellowship for his academic work on Black and Chicana/o cultural intersections in Texas and accepted a tenure-track position in the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Bilingual-Bicultural Studies program.  

Bao-Long Chu grew up in Houston, earned an M.F.A. from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, and has served on the staff of Writers in the Schools (WITS) for twelve years. As Associate Director, he plans and implements WITS’ creative writing programs. His poems are anthologized in several books, including Watermark and Both Sides Now. He has served on the artistic Boards of DiverseWorks Arts Space and Gulf Coast Literary Journal.

Nimmi Agnes Jayathurai is a lecturer at The University of Houston where she teaches writing. She obtained her Ph.D. with her work Migrant Writing and Identities in the Asia Pacific: Emplacing the Displaced; she has also published in the International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing. She has taught American fiction at University of Houston-Clear Lake, English and Communication at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and Cultural Theory and Communication Technologies at the University of South Australia, Adelaide. She currently serves as chair of The Women of Color Panel at the South Central Modern Languages Association.      

Raj Mankad, a lecturer at the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture has served as Editor of Cite: The Architecture and Design Review of Houston for two years. He received an MFA in Creative Writing Program from the University of Houston, where he developed People's Guide to Houston, a website featuring some of the richest yet least publicized sites in the city.  As a graduate student, he received the Barthelme Prize two different years for fiction and then nonfiction. His writing has appeared in Cite, Gulf Coast, Calliope, Lyric Poetry Review, Texas Observer, Critical Practice, OffCite.org, Chron.com, and other publications. In his work he has explored urban nature, public spaces, infrastructure, cultural repercussions of macroeconomic policy, and South Asian culture.

Thomas Meloncon, a nationally known playwright and poet, is a native of Houston’s Fifth Ward. For over 25 years, he toured his original poetry in elementary schools with The Jazz and Poetry Program created by Emmy Award winning jazz drummer, Bubba Thomas. He is the author of many plays that have toured nationally, including The Diary of Black Men, Whatever Happened to Black Love, If Beds Could Talk, and Jump The Broom. His productions at The Ensemble Theatre include The Drums of Sweetwater, Johnny B. Goode, and The Man Who Saved New Orleans, and most recently Christmas with Great Aunt. He teaches in the Fine Arts Department of Texas Southern University and has been Resident Playwright at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

David Theis is a fiction writer, critic and journalist. He has published a novel, Rio Ganges (Winedale Press) and has written features, book and film reviews, and sports coverage for the Chicago Sun-Times, Spin, Texas Monthly, Houston Press, The Texas Observer, and various other regional publications. His most recent book, Literary Houston (TCU Press), the first full-length anthology of fiction and nonfiction writings centered on Houston was published in October 2010.

Robb Walsh was one called “the Indiana Jones of food writers.” Texan Robb Walsh has reviewed restaurants for the Houston Press for 10 years and served as the Food Editor for the Austin Chronicle. He has also contributed numerous articles for national magazines and newspapers. Walsh has a cult of devoted readers who have ridden shotgun with him on his obsessive culinary adventures–from the quest for the perfect cup of coffee, to barbecue battles, to Dr. Pepper bootleggers.

Roger Wood, a professor of English at the Houston Community College System's Central College, is the author of Texas Zydeco (University of Texas Press. 2006) and Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues (University of Texas Press, 2003) and numerous articles for the Encyclopedia of the Blues, The Roots of Texas Music, Handbook of Texas Music, and the Journal of Texas Music History. He is also a contributing writer for Living Blues magazine. His most recent book, co-authored with Andy Bradley, is House of Hits: The Story of Houston’s Gold Star/SugarHill Recording Studios (University of Texas Press, 2010).

Gwendolyn Zepeda began her writing career on the Web in 1997 and has won praise and awards for her short stories, poetry, and children’s books. Her first novel, Houston, We Have a Problema (Grand Central Publishing) was critically acclaimed for its wit and upbeat story.  Booklist calls Zepeda’s latest novel, Lone Star Legend (Grand Central Publishing) “fresh and smart” and Publishers Weekly says she “gives readers a funny and smart heroine that readers will easily pull for." To the Last Man I Slept with and All the Jerks Just Like Him (Arte Público Press) is a collection set in Houston that explores family life, love, the struggle for economic stability, and the search for a personal creative space.