Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Taylur Ngo (She/Her, @taylurngo) was born in Hoi An, Viet Nam and her family arrived in Southern California as part of the refugee resettlement program. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from SDSU. She is at work on her first novel.

Frank DiPalermo received his MFA in fiction from the Vermont College of Fine Arts where he was the inaugural recipient of the McGown-Fowler scholarship. Two of his poems were finalists in the 2020 Steve Kowitt Poetry Prize, a hybrid piece appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of Ruminate magazine, a short story appeared in the 2021 anthology Beyond Queer Words (an anthology of queer fiction), and two essays appeared in The Whole Alphabet: The Light and The Dark (an anthology of queer nonfiction). He is currently at work on a novel about a queer young man, born into a Catholic Charismatic family, who falls in love for the first time during his junior year of high school. Frank writes poetry when he can't help it.

Debra Bass (She/Her) was former newspaper reporter and fashion columnist who now spends her days writing with and for university researchers, inventors, and creatives. Her favorite word is “tintinnabulation” and she wishes there were more opportunities to use it.

Amy Wallen (She/Her/Ella, @amylizwrites) is a novelist, memoirist, and baker of pies. You can find her secrets at amywallen.com and @amylizwrites on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok.

Jonathan D. Grinstein (He/Him, @grinsteinj) - After working in biotech research for more than a decade, Jonathan decided to hang up his lab coat, goggles, and gloves, and dove head-first into writing about science. He now writes full-time as a science journalist, often doing virtual interviews in a dress shirt and gym shorts.

J. Carroll StarLitWriter (She/Her, @starlitwriter) is the author of many books, but not leather-bound ones, as well as a spoken word poet. She once came in 2nd place in a science story slam! Which counts for absolutely nothing! Catch her next story at Better Said Than Done - live streaming on July 20 at 5PM PST.

David Zafra (He/Him, @DavidZafra1) is a comedian, podcaster, dad of twins, and the host of So Say We All’s “Long Story Short." In his free time, he likes to rollerblade and discuss the latest chisme with his friends.