Simone Gamali is a francophile who was born in Jamaica and grew up in three countries. In another life, she was born in Paris and was best friends with Oscar Wilde. :-) Simone's work has been published in the Jamaica Gleaner (a national newspaper), The Muse Magazine, and a short story of hers was awarded the Heide Award by the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Department of Languages and Literature. Sleeping Awake is her debut novel, and she is currently hard at work on her next work of fiction. Her work illustrates coming-of-age and multi-cultural themes. She is planning to pursue her Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology and to study post-globalization identity in immigrant.

Divya holds a Master’s degree from NYU in English and American Literature. She specialized in Creative Writing at Rutgers University where she studied under Miguel Algarin and attended Breadloaf in 2005 where she studied under Samantha Chang. In the past she has been published in Atenea (The Literary Journal of the University of Puerto Rico) 2007.  She has been awarded The New Jersey Chapter of Arts and Letters First Prize for Fiction (1995), The Edna Herzberg Prize for fiction (1995, 1996, 1998), and the Edith Hamilton Prize for Fiction (1998). Her first novel, The Princess of Jasmine is the story of an unapologetic Indian woman in her mid 20s caught between two careers and the affections of two very different women.  The work is a somewhat flippant, humorous look at the lives of strong women who love, grow and ultimately claim their places on their own terms.

Erica Rimlinger began her writing career as a journalist in Washington, DC, at ABC News, America’s Most Wanted and Congress Daily. Now, as a semi-retired homemaker/freelance journalist, she has most recently written for the magazine Grapevine, a regional wine and travel tabloid. Erica is also an AFAA-certified group fitness instructor who credits her Zumba and Bodypump classes for helping her conquer and vanquish breast cancer this past year. She also credits the writing process with helping her maintain sanity during her recent cancer treatment, and wrote her first novel to keep her mind off chemotherapy, which she likens to being attacked by drunk chimpanzees. While her well-meaning friends and family members sent her dour books about cancer and the importance of eating cruciferous vegetables, Erica escaped into her world of comedic farce, emerging only to attend appointments with her medical team (which she nicknamed the Sharp Pointy Object Brigade,) and teach Zumba in her hot pink wig. Erica lives in Baltimore, MD, with her husband, Kevin, and her seven-year-old son Max, who protested loudly when Erica recently picked him up from school without a wig, but then turned to his friends and said: “Told you I had a bald mom.”

Laura Friedman worked on political campaigns, as a community activist, legislative lobbyist, and elected official in Missouri for over twenty years. Though writing has always been a part of her life, after an illness and early retirement, she decided to write with more purpose. She learned during her years working in politics that truth is stranger than fiction, but decided to give fiction a try anyway.

Her first novel, All the Queen’s Men, is the story of an African-American family whose bonds of love and loyalty, law and legacy are threatened when father and son oppose one another in a high-stakes election. It is alternately set in the Missouri state capitol, a small town within a small town, where lawmaking is an insider’s game, and St. Louis, a city troubled by uneasy alliances, both racial and political. The special election brings to the fore long-simmering conflicts, the considerable influence of the city’s business elite and the power of behind-the-scenes operatives, including campaign consultants, black clergymen, and statehouse lobbyists.

Laura and her husband live in St. Louis, Missouri, but spend as much time as they can on the east coast, where they have two daughters, two sons-in-law, and two grandchildren. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Washington University and a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.