Matt Bell‘s first collection of stories, How They Were Found, was published in 2010, including the story “Dredge,” selected for Best American Mystery Stories 2010, and the story “His Last Great Gift,” shortlisted for Best American Short Stories 2010 and the Pushcart Prize anthology. In 2012, Bell published Cataclysm Baby, a novella. Bell’s epic, mythical debut novel, In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods, was published by Soho Press in Spring 2013. Bell’s fiction has been published in Conjunctions, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Gulf Coast, and many other literary magazines, and has been anthologized in 30 Under 30: An Anthology of Innovative Fiction by Younger Writers and Best American Fantasy 2. He has worked as the Senior Editor at Dzanc Books, and is the editor of The Collagist. He lives in Marquette, Michigan, with his wife Jessica, where he teaches creative writing at Northern Michigan University.

Scott Garson was born in Nebraska and grew up in Iowa. A graduate of Carleton College and George Mason University, he has received awards for his fiction from Playboy, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation and Dzanc Books. He lives in central Missouri with his wife and two children.

Elliott Holt’s short fiction has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, and she was the runner-up of the 2011 PEN Emerging Writers Award. A graduate of the MFA program at Brooklyn College , she has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Tin House Summer Writers’ Workshop, and Yaddo. Holt is a former copywriter who has worked at advertising agencies in Moscow, London, and New York. She currently resides in her hometown of Washington, D.C. Find her on Twitter @ElliottHolt.

Leigh Newman’s memoir Still Points North: One Alaskan Childhood, One Grown-up World, One Long Journey Home came out from Dial Press in 2013. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in One Story, Tin House, The New York Times Modern Love section, Fiction, New York Tyrant, Vogue, Real Simple, O The Oprah Magazine, and Bookforum. She is the deputy editor of Oprah.com where she writes about books and happiness, and an editor-at-large for the indie press Black Balloon Publishing.

MUSICAL GUEST:

Since 2011 Bridget Davis and her band the Viking Kings have brought their potent blend of jazz, folk, and pop to music venues through Manhattan and Brooklyn. Featuring fellow University of Miami graduates Sam Petitti on guitar and Dag Markhus on drums, as well as the jazz- and classically-trained Kells Nollenberger on upright bass, the Viking Kings expertly supply each song with its own unique cinematic atmosphere–romance, western, period drama, film noir. Following the 2012 release of their debut EP Trouble Comes in Threes, produced and engineered by Luke Moellman and mastered by Latin Grammy-winning Carlos Alvarez, Bridget Davis and the Viking Kings have been played on Miami’s 90.5 WVUM and featured as a “Must See Show of the Week” by Grass Clippings. But listen to them once, and every show will be a must see show.

Rus Bradburd’s new book “Make It, Take It,” is a novel-in-stories. He is also the author of “Forty Minutes of Hell” and “Paddy on the Hardwood.” A Chicago native, he coached basketball at UTEP and New Mexico State for fourteen seasons. He is a frequent contributor to SLAM Magazine, and his essays have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Daily Southtown,  African-American Perspectives and Fiddler Magazine

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Joshua Henkin is the author of the novels Matrimony, a New York Times Notable Book, and Swimming Across the Hudson, a Los Angeles Times Notable Book. His new novel, The World Without, is recently out in paperback from Vintage Books. It has been named an Editors’ Choice Book by The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune and is the winner of the 2012 Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish American Fiction and a Finalist for the 2012 National Jewish Book Award. His short stories have been published widely, cited for distinction in Best American Short Stories, and broadcast on NPR’s “Selected Shorts.” He lives in Brooklyn, NY, and directs the MFA program in Fiction Writing at Brooklyn College.

Jen Michalski is author of the novel The Tide King, winner of the 2012 Big Moose Prize, the short story collections From Here and Close Encounters, and the novella collection Could You Be With Her Now. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is the founding editor of the literary quarterly jmww, a co-host of The 510 Readings and the biannual Lit Show, and interviews writers at The Nervous Breakdown. She also is the editor of the anthology City Sages: Baltimore, which Baltimore Magazine called a “Best of Baltimore” in 2010. She lives in Baltimore, MD. She tweets at https://twitter.com/MichalskiJen.

Scott Nadelson is the author of a memoir, The Next Scott Nadelson: A Life in Progress, and three story collections, Aftermath, The Cantor’s Daughter, and Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories. A winner of the Oregon Book Award, the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, and the Reform Judaism Fiction Prize, he teaches creative writing at Willamette University and in the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA Program at Pacific Lutheran University.

Rachel Sherman is the author of the novel Living Room (Open City, 2009) and the book of short stories The First Hurt.  The First Hurt was short-listed for the Story Prize and the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and was named one of the 25 Books to Remember in 2006 by the New York Public Library. Her short stories have appeared in McSweeney’s, Fence, Open City, Conjunctions, and n+1, among other publications. She holds an MFA from Columbia University, and teaches writing at Rutgers and Columbia Universities.