Alisa Alering is the author of the novel “Smothermoss,” (Tin House, 2024) a Shirley Jackson Award finalist that the New York Times Book Review calls “deliciously weird…a compulsive journey through a wild, unknowable landscape and the wilder hearts of young girls.” A former librarian and science and technology reporter, they grew up in the Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania. They find the natural world equal parts comforting and terrifying.
Stephanie Brown is a Black speculative fiction writer creating stories about Earth and space, home and the unknown. Her stories have been published in Augur Magazine and Astral: Alien Fiction. She holds an MFA in English and was named the 2025 Mary Ellen State Fellow at Storyknife Writers Retreat.
Heather Litnauwista Metrokin Cannon was raised in Kodiak surrounded by her extended family. She learned harvesting & storytelling, the foundation for her art, from her grandfather Walter and grandmother Feckla. Heather is dedicated to preserving Sugpiaq art forms including storytelling. She is a member of the Sun’aq Tribe and holds an OEC in Alutiiq Language from UAA.
Cherilyn Chin is a marine biologist, children’s book author and freelance science journalist. She has an award-winning ocean conservation blog, Ocean of Hope. Her life purpose is to bring to light the plight of our oceans and to reconnect people to nature.
Geeta Kothari edited ‘Did My Mama Like to Dance?’ and Other Stories about Mothers and Daughters, and she is the author of I Brake for Moose and Other Stories. Her most recent essay, “To the Man who Poisoned My Mother,” was named a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2022.
Amy Ludwig lives in Los Angeles. Her stage adaptation of Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street” has had over 35 productions nationwide. As a director in Chicago, she developed numerous new plays and created original site-specific works. She is writing a historical play to be performed with lantern slides.
Dr. Renee White Eyes is an Assistant Professor in the Educational Leadership department at Northern Arizona University. In her research, she draws on her experience and expertise of admissions, recruiting, and community outreach to investigate questions about American Indian experience in higher education.
A prize-winning journalist and essayist, Kristen Millares Young is the author of the novel Subduction, named a staff pick by The Paris Review. Deemed “whip-smart” by the Washington Post and a “brilliant debut” by the Seattle Times, Subduction was a finalist for two International Latino Book Awards. Red Hen Press will release her memoir Desire Lines on October 6, 2026.
Storyknife Writers Retreat 
Wow, such accomplished writers. I look forward to this session.
Really happy I found Storyknife — or it found me.