Kim Chinquee is the author of the collections Oh Baby, Pretty, and Pistol. Her fiction has appeared in such periodicals and anthologies as The Nation, The Huffington Post, NOON, Conjunctions, Denver Quarterly, Fiction, The Mississippi Review, The Notre Dame Review, The South Carolina Review, New York Tyrant, Best of the Web 2010, and The Pushcart Prize XXXI: Best of the Small Presses 2007. She is an associate professor of English at Buffalo State College.

Author Ted Pelton with his second daughter, Grace.

Ted Pelton is the author of four books: Malcolm and Jack (Spuyten Duyvill, 2006), the novellas Bartleby, the Sportscaster (Subito Press, 2010) and Bhang (Blazevox, 2006), and the short story collection, Endorsed by Jack Chapeau 2 an even greater extent (Starcherone Books), released in an expanded 2nd edition in 2006. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Isherwood Foundation, and Vermont Studio Center for his fiction, and a Best of WNY award as Best Fiction Writer from Buffalo Spree magazine in 2006. His stories have appeared in WebdelSol, Brooklyn Rail, Fiction International, and the anthologies The Art of Friction and The &Now Awards. His fifth book, The Trickster Woodchuck, while not yet published, has been a 2013 finalist in both the Leapfrog Press and the FC2/Catherine Doctorow Prize competitions. He is the founder and publisher of Starcherone Books and a Professor of Humanities at Medaille College.

Author Ed Taylor (left) in Boston with friends Tika Barron and David Levenfeld.

Ed Taylor is the author of the forthcoming novel Theo (2014), the poetry collections Idiogest and The Rubaiyat of Hazmat (Blazevox Books), and was a 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee. His fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in a variety of publications in the US and UK, and in anthologies such as the Best of the Web series. His work has also been featured on the WXXI (Rochester) radio show Fiction in Shorts, and thinkwiceradio, and in art exhibitions in Buffalo and Los Angeles. He is the former executive director of Just Buffalo Literary Center.

Earth's Daughters Magazine—a feminist literary periodical published in Buffalo by a multi-generational collective editorial board comprising Kastle Brill, Jennifer Campbell, Joyce Kessel, Janna Willoughby-Lohr, and ryki zuckerman—is in its 42nd year. The Gray Hair Reading Series at Hallwalls is in its 8th season.