Ana Castillo
Short Story

A noted poet and novelist whose career spans twenty years, Ana Castillo’s first novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters, won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and established her as a leading Chicana feminist writer. Since then, she has published a dozen works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, including Peel My Love Like an Onion, her sardonic and seductive novel which brought her widespread recognition. She has also edited many works and co-founded Third Woman, a literary magazine, for which she is a contributing editor. Ms. Castillo holds a M.A. in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University of Bremen in Germany.

Watch an interview with Ana Castillo (link opens in a new window)

Reginald Shepherd
Poetry

Reginald Shepherd is the editor of The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries and the author of five volumes of poetry, including Some Are Drowning (1994), winner of the 1993 Associated Writing Programs’ Award in Poetry. He is the recipient of a 1993 “Discovery”/The Nation Award and of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Florida Arts Council. Shepherd’s poetry has been widely anthologized, including four editions of The Best American Poetry. His collection of literary essays, Orpheus in the Bronx, will be published in the University of Michigan Press Poets on Poetry Series in 2008.

Watch an interview with Reginald Sheperd (link opens in a new window)

Che’Rae Adams
One-Act Play

Che’Rae Adams has been developing and directing new plays for almost two decades. She is the Producing Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Writer’s Center and has been the Development Executive with Playhouse Pictures Studios, Co-Artistic Director of the award winning Road Theatre Company, partner in Two Girls Productions and Managing Producer for the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival. Adams has directed the West Coast premiere productions of several new plays. She has served on the faculty at UCLA Extension, the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival, and The Lankershim Arts Center and has taught acting and writing workshops at, among others, the Catholic University and The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Watch an interview with Che’Rae Adams (link opens in a new window)

Alan Cheuse
Personal Essay

Alan Cheuse is the author of four novels, three collections of short fiction, and the memoir Fall Out of Heaven. As a book commentator, Cheuse is a regular contributor to National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The Antioch Review, Prairie Schooner, New Letters, The Idaho Review, and The Southern Review, among other places. He received his Ph.D. in comparative literature from Rutgers University, taught literature at Bennington College for nearly a decade, and now teaches in the Writing Program at George Mason University and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

Watch an interview with Alan Cheuse (link opens in a new window)