Jesse Krenzel is the author of  Deadly Landscapes, a crime thriller, the first in a legal thriller series that follows lawyer Jack Larue through legal battles that inevitably spill over to threaten his life and those of his staff and two children.

Jesse was a practicing lawyer in the San Francisco Bay area at the time of his first Santa Barbara Writers Conference in 2004. Since then, he’s attended eleven more, publishing a dozen short stories along the way.

Anita Perez Ferguson's YA novels feature diverse Californians and have twice won the San Francisco Writers Conference YA Writers Award. Her young characters offer a perspective of resiliency.  In the last two years, she has published two YA novels. The latest is Lupe Throws Like a Girl. 

Her nonfiction writing promotes underrepresented 21st-century communities and earned her the U.S. Hispanic Leadership 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award. From her home on the Pacific Coast, she writes, teaches and leads Sharing Our Stories sessions that explore memory, voice and connection.

Jann Winford is the author of the delightfully humorous novel, Dating Under the Influence of Estrogen. She is a humorist, educator, and speaker specializing in modern dating experiences.

A lifelong storyteller, she learned early that well-told tale could entertain, persuade, and transform even the trickiest situations. Today, she blends humor, lived experience, and insight to help audiences navigate dating with clarity, confidence, and laughter.

Ginger Swanson’s latest book, Fairies Aglow, is an inspirational poetic picture story that takes its reader on a journey through the natural world and imaginal states of consciousness to discover lessons on being kind to the Earth and all its beings. 

Ginger holds a PhD and MA in Depth Psychology, a BA in Film and Media Studies, and degrees in Writing and Directing, and Performance Arts. Ginger holds an adjunct faculty position at Pacifica Graduate Institute and has a private psychotherapy practice in Santa Barbara, California.

Stephanie's Barbé Hammer is an award-winning novelist, short fiction writer, and poet. Her newest book is The Warbler School Chronicles, a mini collection of eleven magical realist stories about a strange, perpetually freezing, private girls’ school in NYC. 

She’s the author of three novels, one novelette, three poetry collections, and a how to write magical realism craft manual. Originally from Manhattan, Stephanie, moved to Southern California in 1986 to teach at the University of California, Riverside and she's lived on the West Coast ever since. Three years ago, she and her husband, political organizer Larry Behrendt, moved to Santa Barbara and are still discovering new places to get coffee in town.