Cherry Cecilia Chan was born and raised in Hong Kong. After she finished her European Studies degree in French at Baptist University, she studied her MSc in Dijon, France. She also worked in Sicily, Italy. She speaks four languages. She has been tutoring kids and teenagers in Chinese and English for eight years and she takes pride in helping the children to explore the fun in language learning. She also enjoys the interaction she has with parents and their kids which inspires her writing.

Nola Clark has over thirty years of experience in the fields of primary, special education and English as a Second Language teaching. Before departing Australia to live in China and France in 2011, she taught English to adult refugees and newly arrived migrants at AMES Australia in Dandenong. The last few years living overseas have provided Nola with new insights into language learning and teaching. She is looking forward to returning to Australia later in 2016 and resuming her teaching career.

Kathy Ewing has written on such topics as education, books, women’s issues, and dogs, for Belt, The Bark, The Book Group Book, The Plain Dealer, Great Lakes Review, Growing without Schooling, and many other publications. She has taught at all levels, from nursery school to college, and currently teaches Latin at Cleveland State University and a writing seminar at Case Western Reserve University. She has two grown children and lives with her husband in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Her memoir Missing: Coming to Terms with a Borderline Mother is being published by Red Giant Books in June, 2016. She blogs at www.kathyewing.com.

Stuart Friebert was born in Wisconsin. He spent an undergraduate year + in Germany as one of the first U.S. exchange students after World War II (1949-50). He began teaching at Mt. Holyoke College, and subsequently at Harvard University, before settling at Oberlin College in 1961, where he taught German and founded Oberlin’s Creative Writing Program. He co-founded Field Magazine, the Field Translation Series and Oberlin College Press. Among his fourteen books of poems, Funeral Pie co-won the Four Way Book Award in 1997; and Floating Heart (Pinyon Publishing) won the Ohioana 2015 Poetry Award. He’s also published ten volumes of translations – most recently  “Puppets in the Wind: Selected Poems of Karl Krolow (Bitter Oleander Pres, 2014); and  “Be Quiet: Selected Poems by Kuno Raeber” (Tiger Bark Press,  2015). In addition, he’s published a number of stories and memoir-pieces, which are collected in a volume entitled “The Language of the Enemy,” published by Black Mountain Press in 2015.

Nicolas Gattig was born in Germany, and has spent most of his life in San Francisco. His essays and articles have been published in Street Sheet, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and SOMA magazine. He currently lives in Tokyo, where he writes for the Japan Times.

Karen McGee grew up in Berkeley, California and has lived in Tokyo for over twenty years. She is a professor at Nihon University College of Art and is co-organizer of the Tokyo Writers Workshop. Her work has appeared in “Jobberwock Review,” “Earth’s Daughters,” “Mystery Weekly” and “Kzine.” Upcoming work will appear in “9Crimes” and “Bete Noire.”

Having lived in Brooklyn for most of his life, Steve Slavin managed to learn English as a second language. Still, his introductory text is the first economics book written in plain English. He is hoping to soon find a publisher for a collection of short stories set in New York.

Susan Laura Sullivan’s work has most recently been published in Rat’s Ass Revue (Love and Ensuing Madness Edition), Otoliths, Truck (The World is Not Enough edition), Plumwood Mountain, and the Journal of Literature in Language Teaching. She is a co-founder of the Toyohashi Writers’ Group, and holds a Master of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong.

Kathryn M. Tanaka (Ph.D) is a lecturer in the Department of Cultural and Historical Studies at Otemae University. In addition to her interests in comparative culture and literature, and bilingual education, Her current research explores the intersections of medicine and literature. Past publications include an English translation of Hōjō Tamio’s “Inochi no shoya”, “‘Life’s First Night’ and the Treatment of Hansen’s Disease in Japan,”and “Contested Histories and Happiness: Leprosy literature in Japan” in Health, Culture, and Society, amongst others. She is at present finishing her book manuscript, Through the Hospital Gates: Hansen's Disease and Modern Japanese Literature.