Sonia Gensler is the award-winning author of Ghostlight, The Dark Between and The Revenant, all from Alfred A. Knopf/Random House. Weird and dreamy from birth, Sonia grew up in a small Tennessee town and ran with a dangerous pack of band and drama geeks. As an adult, she experimented with a variety of impractical professions-museum interpreter, historic home director, bookseller, and perpetual graduate student-before finally deciding to share her passion for stories through teaching. Sonia taught literature and writing to young adults for ten years and still thinks fondly of her days in the classroom. She currently lives in Oklahoma with her husband and cat.

Ashley Schumacher is an author of whimsical and romantic books for teens and adults with a degree in creative writing from the University of North Texas. A full-time writer, she feels more than a little vindicated for having spent lots of math classes reading beneath her desk. When Ashley isn’t working, you’ll most likely find her playing cozy video games, planning trips to far-off places, leafing through the folklore and fairytale anthologies she is always acquiring “for research”, or traipsing about her North Texas home with her husband and son.

Martha Jackson is a storyteller at heart, a podcast host, lover of her community, and advocate for sharing authentic voices. As the creator and host of The Bubble Lounge Podcast, Martha has spent six years celebrating the people, businesses, and stories that make Highland Park and University Park unique. Her podcast has become a cherished part of the community, offering insights into parenting, education, local traditions, and the triumphs and challenges of everyday life. A proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Radio-Television-Film, Martha initially aspired to work behind the scenes in media. However, her journey took an unexpected turn when she launched The Bubble Lounge Podcast. Despite her initial fears of being on camera and sharing her voice, Martha embraced the opportunity to grow personally and professionally. Through her podcast, she has not only entertained and informed but also empowered others to embrace their creativity

Michael Gomez is a Dallas-based songwriter, composer, performing artist and producer. After graduating from Southern Methodist University, Michael focused on guitar and performance at the London Music School (LMS) in London, England. As an artist, he has collaborated on multiple recording projects with notable producers and musicians such as Chris Bell (Erykah Badu, U2, Eagles), Warren Huart (Aerosmith, The Fray, Mutemath), Gary Parks (Wall of Orange) and drummers Blair Sinta (Alanis Morrissette, Annie Lennox, Stevie Nicks), David Palmer (ABC, Rod Stewart) and in 2025, Alex Torjussen (Niall Horan). In 2009, Michael founded RoomFour Guitar Studio which provides students of all ages and abilities the chance to explore guitar, songwriting, and production in a positive learning environment.

George Getschow is a Pulitzer Prize finalist for National Reporting and winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Award for distinguished writing about the underprivileged. He has earned numerous other awards for his writing and was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2012 for “distinctive literary achievement.” He spent 16 years at The Wall Street Journal as a writer, editor, bureau chief and Mexico correspondent. In 2007, he was awarded a Master of Fine Arts in Writing, Creative Nonfiction, from Spalding University, Louisville, KY. He spent 12 years serving as writer-in-residence and co-founder of the nationally renowned Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. During that same period, he teamed up with Larry McMurtry to conduct writing workshops in McMurtry’s hometown of Archer City, TX. After McMurtry’s death in 2021, Getschow curated and edited Pastures of the Empty Page, an acclaimed literary anthology about Larry McMurtry’s epic life.

If variety is the spice of life, author Bill Thompson’s life so far has been spicy for sure! Over the years, and in no particular order, he’s been

• an international insurance broker • a mayor • head of a state prison board • a stockbroker • a newspaper reporter • a Bourbon Street piano player • a corporate entrepreneur • presented to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip • in jail (briefly … and wrongly!) • a goat herder • a church organist and choir member • a real estate broker • a world traveler • president of an animal shelter • a husband, father and grandfather • an observer at a knighting in Westminster • a fluent Russian speaker • a passenger on the Concorde • a caregiver • a lifetime dog lover • an award-winning novelist

Award winning Editorial Cartoonist and artist for over many years. Mr. Flint’s work has been published worldwide in many different publications. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University. His editorial cartoons have appeared in the Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star Telegram, White Rock Lake Weekly, Katy Trail Weekly and several other publications. Mr. Flint has illustrated 15 children’s books, his paintings are in galleries worldwide, and his work has appeared on several television programs.

Matt Lyle is a playwright and comedy writer living in Dallas, Texas. He’s a graduate of the Second City Training program and was the host and head writer for The City Life Supplement, named a Top 5 Comedy Show in Chicago (NEWCITY 2013). His sketches have been seen in Dallas in A Brief Endless Love at the Dallas Comedy House, Gold, Frankincense and Credit Card Debt in Theatre Too, and Adulthood: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ken Burns at FunHouse Theater and Film and currently in Most Likely Forever yours at the Wyly Theatre. Matt’s plays, The Boxer, Barbecue Apocalypse, Big Scary Animals, Raptured!, Hello Human Female, A 3D Adventure, A Dance of Joy, and The Better Doctor, have been produced in DFW and across the U.S. In 2018 Matt was honored as a Distinguished Alum of the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre. His work is published by Broadway Play Publishing.

Mark is the acclaimed author of over 18 novels, including the #1 New York Times bestselling “Private” series, which he writes with James Patterson. His beloved book, Beneath a Scarlet Sky, based on the epic tale of forgotten war hero Pino Lella, has resonated deeply with audiences everywhere. Mark’s newest powerful historical novel, All the Glimmering Stars, is inspired by a true story of two teens kidnapped by an African warlord who find salvation and healing through love. Before becoming a celebrated novelist, Mark was a correspondent at Reuters and a reporter at States News Service, where he served as a backup reporter to the D.C. bureaus of the New York Times, Newsday, and the New York Daily News. He later became an award-winning investigative reporter at the San Diego Tribune, where his unique journalistic style focused on the cultures of the things he was investigating. His first novel, The Fall Line, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the year, a rare honor for a debut author. Later, his breakout novel, The Purification Ceremony, made bestseller’s lists all over the world.