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Charlie Jane Anders

Charlie Jane Anders is an author, columnist, and speaker living in San Francisco. She has written multiple science fiction books, including the Unstoppable series, and has published a book of essays, Never Say You Can't Survive, about how creativity bolsters resilience. She also hosts a recurring literary event, Writers with Drinks, in which local writers share their work with an appreciative and tipsy audience.
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Maryemma Graham

Maryemma Graham, a native of Augusta, Georgia, is University Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Kansas and Founding Director of the History of Black Writing (HBW), which she established at the University of Mississippi in 1983. HBW has led national and international initiatives to promote research, teaching, and public engagement with Black literary studies with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ford, and Mellon Foundations. Professor Graham is the author of 12 books that have helped to redefine the field, especially: The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel and, with Jerry W. Ward, The Cambridge History of African American Literature. On the occasion of the History of Black Writing’s 40th anniversary, and Graham’s retirement from teaching to writing full-time, an intergenerational panel of distinguished scholars gathered at the Modern Language Association’s January 2023 conference to celebrate accomplishments, ongoing significance, and new ventures in archiving, programming, and literary research, and its expanding community of digital scholars and practitioners. Graham lives in Lawrence, Kansas and is at work on two new books. More at: www.grahamworks.net.
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Toriano Gordon

Toriano Gordon is a devoted father and husband from San Francisco’s Fillmore District. After dedicating a decade of his life to helping at-risk and formerly incarcerated youth in the San Francisco Bay Area, he decided to pursue his lifelong passion of cooking. Toriano experienced a huge shift in his health and well-being after adopting a plant-based diet, and he now feels compelled to share this with others. He is the owner and founder of Vegan Mob.
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Christina Gerhardt

Christina Gerhardt is Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Environmental Humanities at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, and Senior Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley. Previously, she was the Barron Professor in the Environment and the Humanities at at Princeton University. She has been awarded fellowships by the Fulbright Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Newberry Library and the Rachel Carson Center. She has held visiting appointments at Harvard University, the Free University Berlin, Columbia University and the University of California at Berkeley, where she taught previously. She is also an environmental journalist and has been published (under "Tina Gerhardt") in Grist.org, The American Prospect, The Nation, The Progressive, Sierra and the Washington Monthly. Her most recent book is Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean published by University of California Press.
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gina Breedlove

gina Breedlove is a grief doula, sound healer, vocalist, composer, and author from the People's Republic of Brooklyn. She tours the world with her music, sound healing, and grief letting rituals, bringing the medicine of Grace to every city she visits. gina comes from brackish water, moss covered trees, and a lineage of women who lay hands and sound to bring healing. www.ginaBreedlove.com to discover more about gina.
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Lucy Bledsoe

Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s eighth novel, TELL THE REST, received starred reviews in both Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews, and the New York Times said her work “triumphs as an intimate and humane evocation of day-to-day life under inhumane circumstances.” Her fiction has won a California Arts Council Fellowship in Literature, an American Library Association Stonewall Award, the Arts & Letters Fiction Prize, three Pushcart nominations, a Yaddo Fellowship, and two National Science Foundation Artists & Writers Fellowships. She’s been a three time finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award, and a six time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.
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Sara T. Behrman

Sara T. Behrman, children’s author, is a former professional librarian, a freelance writer, frequent visitor to classrooms, well-received book-talker, and a popular workshop leader at the Oregon Writing Festival. She has published 40 feature articles and creative pieces in regional (e.g., Oregon Humanities) and national publications (e.g., American Libraries, School Library Journal). Sara’s first children’s book, The Sea Hides A Seahorse, will be released this spring (The Collective Book Studio, April 2, 2024). Her last name is pronounced BEARman.
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Dr. Hatem Bazian

Dr. Hatem Bazian is a Decolonial scholar that centers Islam's liberation epistemology in all his work and examines the contemporary world through a global south lens. Dr. Bazian is Known as organic intellectual, a term used for scholars who…
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Brea Baker

Brea Baker has been working on the frontlines for over a decade. She believes deeply in nuanced storytelling and Black culture to drive change, and has commented on race, gender, and sexuality for Elle, Harper’s BAZAAR, Refinery29, THEM, and more. Her writing has been featured in the anthologies OUR HISTORY HAS ALWAYS BEEN CONTRABAND and NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE. A Yale alumna, Brea has been recognized as a 2017 Glamour Woman of the Year, a 2019 i-D Up and Rising, and a 2023 Creative Capital awardee. She has spoken at the United Nations' Girl Up Initiative, Yale Law School, the Youth 2 Youth Summit in Hong Kong, the Museum of City of New York, and more.
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Myriam Gurba

Myriam Gurba is the author of Creep: Accusations and Confessions, an essay collection described by the Los Angeles Review of Books as one of the best books of the decade. She has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Paris Review and many other publications. She lives in Southern California.