Josip Novakovich emigrated from Croatia to the United States at the age of 20. He has published a dozen books, including a novel, April Fool's Day (in ten languages), five story collections (Infidelities, Yolk, Salvation and Other Disasters, Heritage of Smoke, and Tumbleweed) and three collections of narrative essays as well as two books of practical criticism. His novel, Rubble of Rubles, is scheduled for publication in 2021. His work was anthologized in Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize and O. Henry Prize Stories. He has received the Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Ingram Merrill Award and an American Book Award, and in 2013 he was a Man Booker International Award finalist.
Lisa Fugard is the author of Skinner’s Drift, a New York Times Notable Book and a runner up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Her novel was also a finalist for the LA Times First Fiction Award. Her short stories have been published in numerous literary journals, Outside, the British Council’s NW 15: The Anthology of New Writing, featured on Selected Shorts and anthologized in a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt text book of world literature for high school students. She has also had numerous travel articles in the New York Times.