Event moderator COREY ROSKIN has been programming, producing, participating in, and serving on planning committees for literary events for 20 years. Events include the West Hollywood Book Fair (Author Coordinator for 10 years), Lambda Lit Fest, Sci-Fest LA, Pasadena Lit Fest, and Literature for Life, among others. Roskin also dabbles in writing fiction and personal stories and is currently a member of the Queer Wise writing group.

CHRIS J. BAHNSEN is known as a “zebra” by his Chicano uncles, in that he is half Mexican and half white, and thus walks the strange and sometimes precarious edge between cultures. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian’s Air & Space, and various literary journals. He is a jazz critic for DownBeat Magazine‘s Annual Critics Poll, and an assistant editor with Narrative Magazine. Chris divides his time between Southern California and Northwest Ohio.

ROB BOWMAN moved to the desert several years ago from Denver, his longtime home and setting for his upcoming detective novel. His fiction has appeared in the Coachella Review and the Donnybrook Writing Academy. Additional credits include Modern in Denver, Book and Film Globe, and others. He cohosts the film and pop culture podcast Reel Disagreement. When not immersed in these things, he is with his wife Mindy and their sons, Jetson and Rocket.

BARBARA DEMARCO-BARRETT‘s first book, Pen on Fire, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. Her short story “Crazy for You,” published in Orange County Noir, later chosen for USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series, seeded her fascination with noir. Her stories and essays are in Dark City Crime and Mystery Magazine, Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, Literary Hatchet, Ocotillo Review, Inlandia, Shotgun Honey, Partners in Crime, and Paradigm Shifts. She has published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Los Angeles, Times, and Poets & Writers, and writes for the Authors Guild Bulletin. She hosts Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM.

EDUARDO SANTIAGO’s first novel, Tomorrow They Will Kiss, was an Edmund White Debut Fiction Award finalist. His next book, Midnight Rumba, won the New England Book Award for best fiction. His short stories have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Slow Trains, and the Caribbean Writer. His nonfiction was featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Advocate, and Out Traveler magazine. He served on the faculty at Idyllwild Arts Academy, which sits high above Palm Springs.

KELLY SHIRE has published work in numerous journals, including Brevity, Entropy, and the Coachella Review. Her essay “Beautiful Music,” about long-standing Cathedral City radio station KWXY, appeared in Full Grown People. As a half–Mexican American, third-generation resident of Southern California, her writing often explores themes of place and identity. She lives south of Palm Springs with her children and husband, and is completing a memoir.

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