Michelle Adams is the Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. The former codirector of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, she served on the Biden administration’s Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States and as an expert commentator on the Netflix series Amend: The Fight for America and the Showtime series Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Yale Law Journal, California Law Review, and other publications. Her first book, The Containment, received the 2025 MAAH Stone Book Award, and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the year. She was born and grew up in Detroit.

John U. Bacon has authored fourteen books on sports, business, and history, the last seven of which are critically acclaimed national bestsellers, including five New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Ann Arbor and Northern Michigan with his wife and son.

John Counts was born in Bay City, where he spent his childhood. His family moved to the Metro Detroit area when he was ten. While in high school and studying at Wayne State University, he played in punk bands, most notably Suburban Delinquents. After graduating with an English degree, he moved to Chicago where he worked as a parking lot attendant and bookseller, eventually earning an MFA in creative writing from Columbia College. For the past twenty years, he’s worked at newspapers all over Michigan mostly covering the crime beat. He’s an avid outdoorsman and enjoys backpacking, fly-fishing and bird hunting. Currently, he lives in Whitmore Lake with his family and works as the editor of MLive.com’s investigative reporting team. “Bear County, Michigan: Stories” is his first book.

Pero G. Dagbovie is a University Distinguished Professor of History, the Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, and the Dean of the Graduate School at Michigan State University (MSU). He is the author of several books, including The Early Black History Movement (2007), African American History Reconsidered (2010), Carter G. Woodson in Washington, D.C. (2014), What is African American History? (2015) and Reclaiming the Black Past: The Use and Misuse of African American History in the Twenty-First Century (2018). Former editor of The Journal of African American History (founded in 1916), Dagbovie has also been active in public history. He has served as a scholar consultant for the “And Still We Rise” permanent exhibit at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the Organization of American Historians and the National Park Service (U.S. Department of Interior) National Capital Region History Program, National Capital Parks — East. He has also served as a consultant for history and social studies curriculum development with public school systems in Michigan and has led numerous teaching history workshops and summer institutes for secondary school history teachers supported by the U.S. Department of Education, the Michigan Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dagbovie mentors graduate students and has chaired the committees of numerous doctoral recipients. Forever in the Path: The Black Experience at Michigan State University is his most recent book.

In addition to An Ignorance of Trees, Jim Daniels has authored over thirty collections of poetry, seven collections of fiction, four produced screenplays, and his new book, Late Invocation for Magic: New and Selected Poems, will be published this year by Michigan State University Press. He has also edited or coedited six anthologies, most recently RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music. He has read his poetry on Garrison Keillor's “Prairie Home Companion” at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, warmed up for singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, read poems at a Jamestown Jammers AA baseball game, had his poem "Factory Love" displayed on a race car, and sent poetry into space as part of the Moon Arts Project. A native of Detroit, he lives in Pittsburgh and currently teaches in the Alma College low-residency MFA Program.

Robert “Carlos” Fuentes retired from Michigan State University and the U.S. Army and now resides in Lansing, Michigan. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Central Michigan University and a Master of Arts from Michigan State University. The Vacation: A Teenage Migrant Farmworker’s Experience Picking Cherries In Michigan is the first book he has authored. As a migrant farmworker, Carlos has experience picking cherries, strawberries, blueberries, cucumbers, and tomatoes. He has also worked in mechanized cherry harvesting and apple harvesting.

Carlos is an adventurer with a strong sense of curiosity. His passions include history, international travel (35 countries), and inspiring others to pursue their dreams. He is dedicated to service and has created or facilitated numerous group service projects both in the USA and abroad. He enjoys foraging for wild berries and other fruits, and loves being in the orchards during harvest time. He is a huge fan of cherries. Off the record, Carlos enjoys singing Gospel and Neil Diamond songs. Additionally, Carlos is a devoted dancer and will be the first to arrive and the last to leave the dance floor.

Todd Goddard is an associate professor of literary studies at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work has been funded by the Mellon Foundation and a Bordin-Gillette Fellowship from the University of Michigan. He lives in Salt Lake City.

Jeffrey M. Holden has been associated with the Wolf-Moose Project since 2002, when he first volunteered to look for dead moose on Isle Royale. He quickly became a group leader, and he has led at least one group every year since 2005. He is the president of the Wolf-Moose Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance research and education that promotes the conservation of predators and their prey, especially the wolves and moose of Isle Royale.

C. M. Kushins is the author of Nothing’s Bad Luck: The Lives of Warren Zevon and Beast: John Bonham and the Rise of Led Zeppelin. He has been a freelance journalist for over fifteen years and his work has appeared in High Times and The Daily Beast, among others.

Rob Miller was born in Detroit and graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After he left Michigan, in 1993 he co-founded the independent record label Bloodshot Records in Chicago. Over the next 28 years, he worked to make it an internationally renowned home for punk-inspired roots music, Americana, and “alt-country.” He currently hosts the “Miller’s Cave” radio show on WRHC-FM, in Sawyer, MI.

Aram Mrjoian teaches creative writing at the University of Michigan, where he is the managing editor of the Michigan Quarterly Review. His debut novel, Waterline, was published by HarperVia in June 2025. He is also the editor of the anthology We Are All Armenian: Voices from the Diaspora. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, Runner’s World, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, and many other publications. He lives in Michigan.

Tim Mulherin is the author of This Magnetic North: Candid Conversations on a Changing Northern Michigan, published by Michigan State University Press (2025), and Sand, Stars, Wind, & Water: Field Notes from Up North, published by Mission Point Press (2021). Mulherin is a frequent contributor to northern Michigan’s Glen Arbor Sun newspaper. Of note, he won first place in the Michigan Press Association’s 2024 Better Newspaper Contest in the Best Opinion category for his August 2023 Sun piece, “Overlooking Jim Harrison.” His writing has appeared in Traverse Magazine, Bridge Michigan, and the Northern Express. He is currently writing a book on wildlife in Michigan and Indiana.

Lela Nargi is the author of Miss Betti, What Is This?, illustrated by Kristen Uroda and published by Sleeping Bear Press. This story touches on some of the extraordinary work of Detroit’s real-life school “lunch lady” Betti Wiggins to get good food on the menu for the kids in her charge.

Dr. Cheryl Neely holds a B.A., M.A., and PhD in Sociology from Wayne State University. Her research interests include inequality, race, women's issues, and criminology. For the past 18 years, she has been a full-time professor at Oakland Community College at the Royal Oak campus has taught a variety of sociology courses in her discipline at the college including Criminology, Social Problems, Race and Ethnicity, Mass Media in Society, and the Introduction to Sociology. Throughout her teaching career, students have enjoyed her passionate lectures on the state of society and have been fond of her use of Twilight Zone episodes to illustrate sociological concepts. A true fan of the 1960's sci-fi anthology hosted by the late Rod Serling, Dr. Neely loves to introduce the series to students through the prism of the sociological imagination. She is the author of two books, "You're Dead, So What? Media, Police, and the Invisibility of Black Women as Victims of Homicide" (MSU Press, 2015) which examines the lack of media coverage and aggressive police investigation of violent deaths of Black women compared to their White counterparts. The book was also the recipient of the 2016 Gold Midwest Book Award. Her second book, "No Human Involved: The Serial Murder of Black Women and Girls and the Deadly Cost of Police Indifference" was published by Beacon Press in January of 2025 will be re-issued in January 26, 2026 in paperback.

Zoe Persico is an illustrator with a love for the wild, the wondrous and the whimsical. How to Talk to Your Succulent is her graphic novel debut. Zoe lives in sunny Florida with a dog named Zombie.

Khadijah Queen is the author of eight books of poetry and prose, including Anodyne (Tin House 2020) and Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Legacy Lit/Hachette 2025), a memoir about her time in the Navy alongside short histories of maritime women. In 2025 the Foundation for Contemporary Arts recognized Queen’s work with the Cy Twombly Award in Poetry. Born near Detroit and raised in Los Angeles, she holds a PhD in English and Literary Arts from the University of Denver.

Alan Reuther is the son of Roy Reuther and the nephew of famed labor leader Walter Reuther. He received a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1977. Following in his father’s and uncles’ footsteps, the author spent his career working for the United Auto Workers (UAW). In 1977 he began as a lawyer in the union’s legal department, litigating in federal district and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1982 he transferred to the UAW’s Washington office to work on legislative matters. He became legislative director in 1991 and supervised the union’s activities lobbying Congress and the executive branch on health care, pensions, worker rights, and other issues.

Jeffery Seller is one of the masterminds behind the Tony Award–winning musicals Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights, and Hamilton. His shows have garnered twenty-two Tony Awards, including four for Best Musical, and his Broadway productions and tours have grossed more than $4.6 billion and reached more than 43 million attendees. Jeffrey is the only producer to have mounted two Pulitzer Prize–winning musicals—Hamilton and Rent. He also revolutionized theater accessibility with the $20 ticket lottery for Rent, making theater affordable for many. This passion for accessibility underscores his belief in the power of the stage, which was his ticket out of his hometown.

Evelyn Sterne is a Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Humanities at the University of Rhode Island, where she specializes in the history of religion and immigration in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States. She is the author, most recently, of The House of David: Salvation, Scandal, and Survival in a Modern American Commune (Oxford University Press, 2025). Her other publications include articles about Catholicism, Pentecostalism, and ethnic politics, as well as the book Ballots and Bibles: Ethnic Politics and the Catholic Church in Providence (Cornell University Press, 2004).  

Susan Wasserman received her undergraduate degree in History from Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio.  Employment experience includes time spent as a reporter and editor on a small weekly newspaper in Michigan (The East Lansing Town Courier); community organizer and co-author of the Model Cities Plan for the City of Dayton, Ohio; pottery teacher and production potter; toy store owner; municipal government consultant including work for the towns of Belmont, MA, Harvard, MA, West Tisbury, MA (fire station siting, capital expenditure planning and hiring a police chief) and the County of Dukes County, MA (transportation issues); and, paralegal and title examiner for law firms on Martha’s Vineyard. Her eclectic professional life has also included doing legal research for a Washington, D.C. law firm in the 1980s, whose cases included investigating Woburn, Massachusetts, groundwater pollution which caused numerous leukemia deaths in local children. This case was the basis for both the book and movie, A Civil Action.