Sam Allingham is the author of the story collection The Great American Songbook (A Strange Object), which Electric Literature selected as one of the best story collections of 2016. His fiction has appeared in One Story, Epoch, American Short Fiction, and n+1, among other publications, and has received a Special Mention for the Pushcart Prize. His essays and criticism have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Full Stop, The Millions, and Monkeybicycle, and his essay “Art Garfunkel Lives!” can be found in the anthology Full Stop: The Book. He received his MFA from Temple University, and lives in West Philadelphia.
Patricia A. Smith is the author of the novel The Year of Needy Girls (Kaylie Jones/Akashic Books). She received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her nonfiction has appeared in the anthologies One Teacher in Ten: Gay and Lesbian Educators Tell Their Stories; Tied in Knots: Funny Stories from the Wedding Day; Something to Declare: Good Lesbian Travel Writing; and One Teacher in Ten in the New Millennium: LGBT Teachers Discuss What Has Gotten Better…and What Hasn’t. Her work has also appeared in such places as Salon, Broad Street, Prime Number, Gris-Gris, The Tusculum Review, and So to Speak.