Gail Giewont earned her MFA in poetry and MAT in secondary English education from the University of Pittsburgh. She has taught in the English and Literary Arts departments at ARGS since 2011. Her poetry chapbook, Vulture, is available from Finishing Line Press. Winner of the Shann Palmer Poetry Prize and runner-up for the James River Writers Best Unpublished Novel Contest, her poetry and nonfiction can be found in Rappahannock Review, Tusculum Review, Cider Press Review, Indiana Review, Slipstream, and the anthologies Bare and Nine Lives from Life in 10 Minutes Press. She is currently teaching Creative Writing for Majors, Thematic Studies, Print & Online Publications (Yearbook), Print & Online Publications (Literary Magazine), and Poetry I, II, and III.

Julie Geen earned her MFA in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction from Virginia Commonwealth University. During her time at VCU, she taught Expository Writing at the Honors College and was the Cabell First Novelist Fellow. One of the original teachers for Richmond Young Writers, she taught creative writing to children of all ages. From 2009-2015, she contributed to the Arts and Culture section of Style Weekly and also wrote two columns for Belle magazine, winning a Virginia Press Award for her work. She has published creative nonfiction essays in three anthologies; her short story in Parhelion Literary Magazine was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Awards. Her zombie story appears in the anthology Richmond Macabre II. She is currently teaching Fiction I, II, and III.

Patty Smith has been teaching American Literature and Creative Writing at the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School in Petersburg, VA since 2006. A native New Englander, she received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her nonfiction has appeared in the anthologies Older Queer Voices; One Teacher in Ten: Gay and Lesbian Educators Tell Their Stories (Alyson Publications, 1994); Tied in Knots: Funny Stories from the Wedding Day (Seal Press, 2006); Something to Declare: Good Lesbian Travel Writing, (University of Wisconsin Press, 2009); One Teacher in Ten in the New Millennium: LGBT Teachers Discuss What Has Gotten Better…and What Hasn’t (Beacon Press, 2015); and in Nine Lives: A Life in Ten Anthology. Her essays and stories have appeared in such places as Hippocampus; Salon; the Master's Review; Parhelion Literary Magazine; Broad Street: A New Magazine of True Stories; Prime Number: A Distinctive Journal of Poetry and Prose, Gris-Gris, An Online Journal Of Literature, Culture, and the Arts; The Tusculum Review, and So to Speak: a journal of feminist language and literature. The Year of Needy Girls is her first novel. She is currently teaching Creative Writing for Non-Majors, Nonfiction and Senior Project.