Elizabeth Garner Masarik is a historian of U.S. and women's history. She is the author of two books, "The Sentimental State: How Women-led Reform Built the American Welfare State" and "Spiritualism's Place: Reformers, Seekers, and Seances in Lily Dale," which was co-written with her fellow producers of "Dig: A History Podcast," of which Elizabeth is a founding member.
You can follow her on Instagram @EGMasarik
Edmondson Cole is a graduate of Pacific University’s MFA in Writing, as well as a former Elizabeth George Foundation fellow and finalist in the Maine Literary Awards’ Short Works in Fiction category. His work has appeared in The Twin Bill, Portland Monthly Magazine, Drizzle Review, and the anthologies I Could Be Here Now and Then Again, published by Pine Pitch Press. He lives in Portland, Maine.
Raven Love is a Detroit-based writer with a passion for voice-driven stories. Her work explores topics of family, class, identity, and love through the lens of marginalized protagonists.
A graduate of Wayne State University with a B.A. in English, Raven works in advertising by day, and huddles around her computer with her two cats, Phil and Lil, crafting stories by night.
You can find her on Instagram and Twitter (X) @msravenlove.
Dayna Altman is an energetic and dynamic mental health speaker, entrepreneur and advocate. The full force and sole operator of Bake it Till You Make it LLC, Dayna harvests her passion for mental health advocacy by using food and baking to create an authentic recipe for vulnerable storytelling. The author of five mental health cookbooks (self published), the facilitator of a variety of mental health presentations. and the subject of an award winning documentary, Dayna is a sought after storyteller.
Dayna has been invited to speak at national conferences, in community kitchens, on the news and most notably, at the White House in 2022. With experience working in both clinical and advocacy mental health settings, Dayna’s breadth of knowledge in the field informs her work as does her own recovery.
Today, Dayna lives with major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and is in lifelong eating disorder recovery. When she’s not testing out new recipes in her kitchen or quoting her therapists, Dayna is in pursuit of creating art as a means to explore new ways to change the world using her own story.
Find her on social media!
Instagram: @daynaaltman, @bakeittillyoumakeitllc
Facebook: Dayna Altman, Bake it Till You Make it LLC
Pinterest, Tik Tok: Bake it Till You Make it LLC
Lexi Bruner is an author and poet who leverages her storytelling to amplify her mission to disrupt power structures, advocate for social justice, and amplify diverse stories. As someone who was born and raised in Austin, TX, the local dynamics and cultural institutions have colored her approach to art and storytelling—her poetry and prose are heavily influenced by her identity as a queer, Black, and Latinx woman in these spaces.
When she’s not exploring themes of identity, culture, power, and healing in her writing, you can find Lexi “hiking” around town, knitting, baking, binding books, reading, or rewatching a comfort anime that has a 90% chance of making her cry.
Hailey is acting as a Co-Agent for this author.
Victoria Malone is a Russian-Nigerian who immigrated from post-Soviet Russia to Toronto at nine years old. She is a Harvard Law School-educated attorney who has written for Teen Vogue comparing the experience of Black Americans to refugees seeking asylum in the United States, arguing that America needs a new constitution to begin to tackle its pervasive racism. As a lawyer, an immigrant twice over, and a Nigerian-Russian woman, she has a unique perspective to offer on issues of race, class, gender and the law. She now lives in California with her husband and dog.
Hailey is acting as a Co-Agent for this author.
Megan Swenson grew up in Chandler, Arizona before getting her BAs in Creative Writing and Anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder and her MFA in Fiction from New York University. While living abroad in Canada, she earned a Graduate Certificate in Educating Multilingual Learners and an MA in English Studies through Arizona State University.
She currently serves as a fiction editor for MAYDAY and freelance developmental and copy editor. Megan’s short fiction has appeared in/is forthcoming from Walkabout Creative Arts Journal, Driftwood Press, Fruitslice, and Bone Parade.
As a bisexual recovering alcoholic and sexual assault survivor, her areas of interest in fiction include sexuality and gender, addiction and recovery, family narratives, and sexual and intergenerational trauma. Her writing tends to blend realism with fantastical elements to explore the way we perceive ourselves and others within a larger sociohistorical context and how we move forward in love.
Hailey is acting as a Co-Agent for this author.