Lindy West is a columnist at The Guardian, a contributor to This American Life, and a freelance writer whose work focuses on feminism, social justice, humor, and body image. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, GQ, Vulture, Jezebel, The Stranger, and others. She is the founder of I Believe You, It's Not Your Fault, an advice blog for teens, as well as the reproductive rights destigmatization campaign #ShoutYourAbortion. Her first book, a memoir called Shrill, is out now from Hachette Books.

Julia Vinograd is a Berkeley street poet and the unofficial Poet Laureate of Berkeley. She has published 50 books of poetry, and won the American Book Award of The Before Columbus Foundation. She has three poetry CD collections: Bubbles and Bones, Eye of the Hand, and The Book Of Jerusalem.

Zahra Noorbakhsh is a Feminist Muslim, Iranian-American comedian and cohost of the award winning podcast, #GoodMuslimBadMuslim. The podcast was recently invited to record at the White House and featured in Oprah Magazine. Her one woman show, "All Atheists are Muslim: a romantic comedy" was dubbed a highlight of the Int'l New York City Fringe Theater Festival by The New Yorker.

George Higgins has been a public defender in Oakland, California for the past 26 years. His first published poem, a villanelle, was selected for Best American Poetry 2003 by Yusef Komunyakaa. Other poems have appeared in Fugue, Lungfull, Nimrod, Pleiades, and Salamander. George is presently a Cave Canem Fellow.

Meg Elison is a Bay Area author and essayist. Her debut novel The Book of the Unnamed Midwife won the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award and was listed as a Tiptree Committee Recommendation.