FICTION
Len Kuntz
Spokane, Washington
"I grew up in a large (ten kids) and extremely dysfunctional family in eastern Washington State. For most of my childhood, I lived in a trailer and my only friend was the wind shifting through the trees in the craggy landscape where I used to go to hide, to get away from all of the bedlam. There was also an old tree fort where I’d escape to, making up stories. That fort’s long gone now, but I’m still leaning on its existence, making up stuff that may or may not be true."
FICTION
Autumn Williams
Cold Springs, Nevada
"My connection to the American West is Cold Springs, Nevada, where I lived as a teenager. I've moved many times. I collect various American cultures, rejecting what I don't like and adding what I do like. As a result I am from "nowhere" USA. I have a disease called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, and its symptoms can sometimes improve in dry air... As a person who likes to help others, I share my writing online as a large part of how I continue this work within limitations."
FICTION
Sheila August Brown
Las Vegas, Nevada
"God left me in a barren wasteland after a decade in New England among granite and greenery....I am not a poet but a simple fiction writer, my inspiration drawn from real-world experience and the drama that life somehow requires. I learned there is indeed such a thing as too much adventure. Now, rather than running, I sit and I write. I put the wasteland on the page, and for the first time, it does not feel like exile. Nevada, unwelcoming as it first was, is where I've chosen to belong. I finally picked a ground to stand on, for now at least.
FICTION
Declan Jones
County Galway, Ireland
"I grew up in the west of Ireland. Being from a rural community, we were always in awe of the United States and the American west. John Denver was always playing on the radio, spaghetti westerns were always a favourite watch on Sunday afternoons... Growing up gay in such a rural community is never easy, especially in a place where the word of God is stitched so firmly into the simple calls of greeting in Gaelic or in the exasperated gasps at the end of a long day..."
Solape Adeyemi
Arigbamowo, Nigeria
"My love for writing started with reading. I grew up in a house filled with books because my mother was an avid reader. By the time I was eight, I was already into James Hadley Chase novels, along with Mills & Boon, Pacesetters, and just about anything I could get my hands on. Books became my first escape, and eventually my inspiration to write my own stories...I researched Minnesota and fell in love with it, albeit, from a great distance..."