Author: Author's Answer

Sarah Fawn Montgomery is the author of Halfway from Home (Split/Lip Press), Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir (The Ohio State University Press), and three poetry chapbooks. She is an Assistant Professor at Bridgewater State University.

Kaira Rouda is a multiple award–winning, Amazon Charts and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary fiction that explores what goes on beneath the surface of seemingly perfect lives. Her novels of domestic suspense include Somebody’s Home, The Next Wife, The Favorite Daughter, Best Day Ever, and All the Difference. To date, Kaira’s work has been translated into more than ten languages. She lives in Southern California with her family.

Martin Bodek was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and three children. He is a technologist by day, and a writer by night. He has been writing freelance for over two decades, mostly on Jewish interest topics. His work has been published and his books have been covered in dozens of newspapers, journals, magazines, blogs, podcasts, and social media channels. This is his eleventh book, and it might be his most important.

Dr. Carrie Jarosinski is a registered nurse, wellness coach, educator, inspirational speaker, and author of Reclaim Your Story: Renew Your Health and Wellness through the Power of Storytelling and the Nursing Assistant textbook educational series. She lives in Wisconsin with her two furry companions, Winn and Xena. She likes to hike, explore, meet new people, laugh, and continuously build upon her pollinator garden in her free time.

Fran Hawthorne has been writing novels since she was four years old, although she was sidetracked for several decades by journalism. During that award-winning career, she wrote eight nonfiction books, mainly about consumer activism, the drug industry, and the financial world. For instance, Ethical Chic (Beacon Press) was named one of the best business books of 2012 by Library Journal, and Pension Dumping (Bloomberg Press) was a Foreword magazine 2008 Book of the Year. She’s also been an editor or regular contributor for The New York Times, Business Week, Fortune, Newsday, and many other publications. But Fran never abandoned her true love: Her debut novel, The Heirs, was published in 2018 by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. With the publication of I Meant to Tell You, and firmly committed to fiction now, Fran is at work on two new novels and also writes book reviews for the New York Journal of Books.

Susen Edwards is the founder and former director of Somerset School of Massage Therapy, New Jersey’s first state-approved and nationally accredited postsecondary school for massage therapy. During her tenure she was nominated by Merrill Lynch for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. After the successful sale of the business, she became an administrator at her local community college. She is currently secretary for the board of trustees for her town library and a full-time writer. Her passions are yoga, cooking, reading, and, of course, writing. Susen lives in Central New Jersey with her husband, Bob, and her two fuzzy feline babies, Harold and Maude. She is the author of Doctor Whisper and Nurse Willow, a children’s fantasy. What a Trip is her first adult novel.

Amy Turner was born in Bronxville, New York, and holds a degree in political science from Boston University and a Juris Doctor from New York Law School. After practicing law (rather unhappily) for twenty-two years, she finally found the courage to change careers at forty-eight and become a (very happy) seventh grade social studies teacher. A long-time meditator and avid reader who loves to swim and bike, Amy lives in East Hampton, New York, with her husband, Ed. They have two sons and a rescue dog, Fred. On the Ledge, A Memoir, (She Writes Press) is Amy’s first book.

Aaron Philip Clark is the author of the novel Under Color of Law and a screenwriter from Los Angeles. In addition to his writing career, he has worked in the film industry, higher education, and law enforcement. 

A former European security specialist, Suzanne now writes historical fiction about the Soviet Union. She studied Russian at Purdue University and the Pushkin Institute in Moscow. After earning a Master’s from Princeton University, she began a career in public service with the US Department of Defense focused on Europe and the Soviet Union. While at the Pentagon she helped negotiate the Conference on Disarmament in Europe, the first security agreement of the Gorbachev era. She raised a large family and taught university, eventually landing in the wonderful and welcoming city of Portland, Oregon. There, she coached high school cross country and track for fifteen years before embarking on a writing career. A veteran of several dozen marathons on six continents, Suzanne now runs slowly and not very far. She remains convinced that raising four children was as difficult as negotiating with the Soviets.

Stephen Policoff is the author of Beautiful Somewhere Else, which won the James Jones Award, and was published by Carroll & Graf. His second novel, Come Away, won the Dzanc Award, and was published by Dzanc Books in 2014. He was writer-in-residence at Medicine Show Theater Ensemble, with whom he wrote Shipping Out, The Mummer’s Play, Ubu Rides Again, and Bound to Rise, which received an Obie. He was also a freelance writer for Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, New Age Journal, and many other publications. He helped create Center for Creative Youth, based at Wesleyan University, and has taught writing at CUNY, Wesleyan, and Yale. He is currently Clinical Professor of Writing in Global Liberal Studies at NYU, where he has taught since 1987. His latest book is Dangerous Blues ( Flexible Press, November, 2022).