About Ridley Sperling
Ridley Sperling currently serves as Director of Secondary School Placement, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, English Department Chair, and English teacher at Rippowam Cisqua School in Bedford, New York. She holds a BA from New York University, an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, MAs in English Literature and Secondary Education from Mercy College, and a graduate certificate in Social Justice from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
In July and August of 2026, Ridley served as a Writer-in-Residence at Yellow Studio, where she found the time and space to finish revising her first novel. Her “Party” scene is an excerpt from a chapter in that novel. She lives in Westchester County, New York.

About Debra Banerjee
Debra Banerjee is a freelance writer who has spent the last decade as a contributor to The Boca Raton Observer, a monthly lifestyle magazine. Prior to that, she was the Arts and Entertainment Editor at The Scarsdale Inquirer. Banerjee’s debut novel, “Murder at Mah Jongg,” will be released in the fall of 2026. She splits her time between Boca Raton, Florida and New York City.

About Lynn Edelson 
Lynn Edelson has been writing memoir for more than fifteen years.

Her narrative essays have appeared in the NYC Listen To Your Mother show, Writers Read/Read650, Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope Festival, HerStry blog, Every Family’s Got One, and The Westchester Review. She was also a finalist for the 2023 Eunice Williams Nonfiction Prize.

Lynn is the mother of two grown sons. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and is currently working on a collection of her essays.

About Lindsay Gael
Lindsay Gael is a writer interested in stories about women. Her non-fiction writing has appeared in various magazines and publications, and she is excited to share some of her closely guarded fiction with the world. She lives with her family north of New York City.

About Christine Carpenter
Christine Carpenter has been writing since she could hold a pen, but the birth of her first child awakened her to the power of the written word. After her little boy arrived during the height of COVID, she left a career of more than a decade in the fashion industry and decided to pursue her earliest passion––writing.

Today, Christine is a contributing editor and writer for The Bump, an online parenting platform where she writes eCommerce content for new and expectant parents. Her personal work often explores motherhood, identity, relationships, and the ways we change through the lives we’re building. She is drawn to honest, reflective storytelling and to writing about the moments that shape us, even when we don’t fully understand them until later.

Christine lives in New York and is a mom to two little boys. She continues to write personal essays alongside her editorial work.

About Jessica Rao
Jessica Rao is the author of the forthcoming novel Nowhere to Go but Everywhere (Ten 16 Press, September 2026). She’s also an award-winning journalist and media professional who has held contributor roles at CNBC and Gannett and overseen communications for Fortune 500 companies.

In addition to her media career, Jessica is the Vice President of the White Plains Library Foundation Board and she hosts and produces literary events.

About Ines Rodrigues
Ines Rodrigues is an author and teacher, who published her first novel, Days of Bossa Nova, in 2017.  Her short fiction appears in The Plentitudes Literary Journal, Columbia Anthology, Tint Journal, and 650-Writers Read. Her translation work appears in the Word for Word Anthology/2023, and ANMLY.org. She was the recipient of the Word for Word Translation Grant from Columbia University in 2023. She’s a creative writing instructor at the Writing Institute/Sarah Lawrence College, and Hugo House. Rodrigues was a writer-in-residence at Yellow Studio from November/2024 through February/2025. She is currently seeking representation for her second novel.