Jon Alston is a native of Northern California, and graduated with an MA in Creative Writing from California State University, Sacramento. Married for over seven years, he and his wife run JSA Photography. On the off chance he isn’t writing or working on photography, he works for Copilot Press as Assistant Editor editing and binding…

Eliana Ramage is an English teacher and freelance writer from Nashville, Tennessee. In 2009, she was awarded a silver medal in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. A recent graduate of Dartmouth College, she has just begun an MFA in creative writing at Bar-Ilan University. She lives in Israel with her husband.

Lori Horvitz’ short stories, poetry, and personal essays have appeared in a variety of literary journals and anthologies including South Dakota Review, The Tusculum Review, Southeast Review, Hotel Amerika, Thirteenth Moon, Juked, Dos Passos Review, Quarter After Eight and the Seal Press anthology, P.S.: What I Didn’t Say: Unsent Letters to Our Female Friends. She has…

Rachel Heimowitz is an emerging poet living in Israel. Her work has appeared, or is due to appear in Spillway, Crab Orchard Review, Prairie Schooner, and Oberon Poetry.  Her poems were nominated for The 2013 Pushcart Prize. Rachel is currently pursuing her MFA at Pacific University.

Milena Nigam lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she directs a small group of applied researchers studying child development. After decades of thinking about writing, Milena has declared this the decade to write about all those years of thinking. She is grateful for the opportunity to share “Stolen Family Jewels, and Other Gifts” with Compose readers. 

Stefanie Freele’s recent short story collection, Surrounded by Water, released by Press 53 includes the Glimmer Train Fiction Award winning title story. Her first short story collection, Feeding Strays released by Lost Horse Press was a finalist for both the Book of the Year Award and the 2010 Binghamton University John Gardner Fiction Book Award.…

Jael McHenry is the author of The Kitchen Daughter (S&S/Gallery, 2011) and a monthly contributor to Writer Unboxed. Her work has appeared in publications such as the North American Review, Indiana Review, and the Graduate Review at American University, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing. Learn more about Jael’s work at jaelmchenry.com or follow her on Twitter at @jaelmchenry. She lives…

Jennie Nash is the author of four novels, including Perfect Red, The Threadbare Heart, The Only True Genius in the Family and The Last Beach Bungalow. She is the author of three memoirs, including The Victoria’s Secret Catalog Never Stops Coming and Other Lessons I Learned From Breast Cancer. Jennie has worked in a wide variety of publishing roles, including stints in…