Diana Abu-Jaber is the author of the memoir, The Language of Baklava, and the novels, Crescent and Arabian Jazz. Her many honors include a Pen Center Award for Literary Fiction, and fellowships from The Fulbright Center and the National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches at Portland State University and lives part time in Miami. www.dianaabujaber.com

Kathleen Aguero’s poetry collections include Daughter Of, Thirsty Day and The Real Weather. She has edited several anthologies, teaches at Pine Manor College and was a Visiting Research Associate at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center.

Julia Alvarez is the author of five novels, including bestselling, award-winning, In the Time of The Butterflies and How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, an essay collection, Something To Declare, five books of poetry, and four books for young readers. Her articles have appeared in the New York TImes, Elle and O: The Oprah Magazine. www.juliaalvarez.com

Anne Bernays’s ninth novel is Trophy House. She has published two works of nonfiction, The Language of Names written with husband Justin Kaplan, and What If? written with Pamela Painter. Her articles and essays have appeared in The Nation, The New York Times, Town & Country, and Sports Illustrated.

Nell Casey edited Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression (William Morrow), a national bestseller. She was a Carter Center journalism fellow in 2000-2001. Her work has appeared in Elle, Mirabella, Salon, Self, and The New York Times Book Review.

Susan Cheever, the bestselling author of twelve books, including five novels, four memoirs and a biography of Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Bill Wilson, is a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee and Boston Globe Winship Medal winner. She writes for Newsday and teaches in the Bennington College M.F.A. program. www.susancheever.com

Susan Dworkin was a longtime contributing editor of Ms. Magazine. She is author of The Nazi Officer’s Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust and Miss America, 1945: Bess Myerson and the Year That Changed Our Lives, as well as Stolen Goods, a novel, the Peabody Award-winning TV documentary She's Nobody's Baby: American Women in the 20th Century and numerous plays.

Helen Fremont is the author of the national bestseller, After Long Silence, a memoir (Delacorte). Her stories and essays have appeared in Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, Ploughshares, The Harvard Review and The Marlboro Review. She works as a public defender.

Elizabeth Graver is the author of Unravelling and The Honey Thief, both of which were New York Times Notable Books. Awake, her third novel, was published by Henry Holt. Her work has been included in Best American Short Stories; Best American Essays; and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards.

Jennifer Heath is an activist, award-winning journalist and long-time art critic who has lived and worked all over the globe. Her books include A House White with Sorrow: Ballad to Afghanistan; Black Velvet: The Art We Love to Hate; On the Edge of Dream: The Women of Celtic Myth and Legend; and The Scimitar and the Veil: Extraordinary Women of Islam. www.jenniferheath.com

Maria Hinojosa is the senior correspondent for NOW on PBS TV and the host of NPR’s Latino USA. She authored a memoir, Raising Raul: An Adventure Raising Myself and My Son, and the book, Crews: Gang Members Talk to Maria Hinojosa. Working Mother magazine named her one of the “25 Most Influential Working Mothers in America” and 3 times, Hispanic Business named her as one of the 100 most influential Latinos in the US.

Erica Jong is the author of eight novels including Fear of Flying; Fanny, Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones; Shylock's Daughter; Inventing Memory, and Sappho’s Leap. Other books include the nonfiction works Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir, What Do Women Want, and six volumes of poetry. www.ericajong.com

Eve LaPlante is the author of American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson and Seized. Her articles have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and The New York Times. She is working on her third HarperCollins title, a biography of her sixth great grandfather Samuel Sewall, the Salem witch judge. www.evelaplante.com

Aimee Liu has authored novels Flash House, Cloud Mountain, and Face, and a memoir, Solitaire. She is a contributor to the anthologies, My California and Meeting Across the River and has co-authored seven books of nonfiction on medical and psychological topics. She is a past president of PEN USA. www.aimeeliu.net

Meredith Maran is the author of nine books of nonfiction, including Like to Live Now and Class Dismissed, and most recently, 50 Ways To Support Lesbian and Gay Equality. She has written for Brides, Mademoiselle, Self, Tikkun, Utne and Salon.com. www.meredithmaran.com

Bharati Mukherjee won the National Book Critics' Circle Award for The Middleman and Other Stories. She is the author of seven novels including The Tree Bride, Desirable Daughters, The Holder of the World and Jasmine, two short-story collections and two books of non-fiction co-authored with her husband, Clark Blaise.  She teaches at UC Berkeley.

ZZ Packer’s stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope and Best American Short Stories 2000 and 2003. Her collection, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere was a New York Times Notable Book, a Commonwealth Book Award Winner and a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist. She is a recent winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Marge Piercy’s new novel, Sex Wars, is out from Morrow/Harper Collins. She has written over thirty-eight books, including novels, poetry, a play and a collection of essays, all with a focus on women's lives and social issues. Her numerous awards include the Patterson Poetry Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke award for He, She and It. www.margepiercy.com

Hannah Pine (a pseudonym) first appeared in The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell The Truth About Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood and Marriage. Her husband wrote for The Bastard On The Couch: 27 Men Try Really Hard to Explain Their Feelings About Love, Loss, Fatherhood and Freedom. Essays by both Pines have been published in Elle.

Audrey Schulman is the author of three novels: The Cage, Swimming with Jonah and A House Named Brazil. Her books have been translated into 11 languages, and her articles have been published in Ms Magazine, Grist, and Hope. www.AudreySchulman.com

Kamy Wicoff’s first book, I Do But I Don’t, will be published in spring 2006. She has written for Salon.com and spent five years as a television journalist in Los Angeles. She lives in New York City.

Liza Wieland is the author of two novels, The Names of the Lost and Bombshell, and two short story collections, You Can Sleep While I Drive and Discovering America, as well as a volume of poems, Near Alcatraz. Her work has been awarded two Pushcart Prizes, an NEA fellowship and a fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council.

About The EDITORS

Karen Propp is the author of two memoirs: In Sickness & In Health: A Love Story and The Pregnancy Project: Encounters With Reproductive Therapy. Her essays, poetry and reviews and have appeared in The Women’s Review of Books, Lilith and Ploughshares, and she has won several grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and son.

eMail: Karen Propp

Jean Trounstine, author, activist, and professor, published Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women’s Prison based on her award- winning work directing plays behind bars. She has been featured on NPR, the Today Show and written for The Boston Globe and Working Woman magazines. She coauthored Finding A Voice, coedited Changing Lives Through Literature and has published a collection of poetry, Almost Home Free. She and her husband live in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.
http://academic.middlesex.mass.edu/jeantrounstine