Mx Justin Vivian Bond is a writer, singer, painter, performance artist, and activist. Mx Bond is the author of TANGO: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels, a novella-length memoir published by The Feminist Press and Susie Says… a collaboration with Gina Garan (Powerhouse Books, 2012). V’s debut CD DENDRPOPHILE was self-released on WhimsyMusic in 2011.  Also in 2011 Justin Vivian’s art exhibition The Fall of the House of Whimsy was presented at Participant Inc. in New York City. Mx Bond was nominated for a Tony Award for Kiki and Herb Alive On Broadway in 2007. Other notable endeavors include originating the role of Herculine Barbin in Kate Bornstein’s groundbreaking play Hidden: A Gender, touring with the performance troupe The Big Art Group and appearing in John Cameron Mitchell’s film Shortbus.  Mx Bond is a recipient of The Ethyl Eichelberger Award, The Peter Reed Foundation Grant, and The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award for Performance Art/Theater, an Obie and a Bessie. Please visit www.justinbond.com to download and enjoy v’s music and blog, Justin Vivian Bond is Living!

Christopher Bram is the author of nine novels, including Gods and Monsters, which became the movie starring Ian McKellen and Lynn Redgrave. His most recent book is a history of gay men’s literature after World War II, Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America. He lives in New York and teaches at the Gallatin School at New York University.

James Earl Hardy is the author of the bestselling B-Boy Blues series: B-Boy Blues (praised as the first gay hip-hop love story and a 1995 Lammy finalist), 2nd Time Around, If Only For One Nite, The Day Eazy-E Died, Love The One You’re With, A House Is Not a Home, and “Is It Still Jood To Ya?” (included in the anthology Visible Lives: Three Stories in Tribute to E. Lynn Harris). He contributed the new introductory essay to the reissue of the groundbreaking Black gay anthology, In The Life, and his one-man show about adult film actor Tiger Tyson, Confessions of a Homo Thug Porn Star, won the Downtown Urban Theater Festival’s Best Short Prize. His short story, “The Last Picture. Show.” is featured in Best Gay Erotica 2011 and his soon-to-be-released collection, Can You Feel What I’m Saying? (summer 2012).

Paul Russell grew up in Memphis, Tennessee.  He attended Oberlin College and received his PhD from Cornell University.  A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writers Grant, he is the author of six novels, including THE UNREAL LIFE OF SERGEY NABOKOV, THE COMING STORM and SEA OF TRANQUILLITY.  He has taught at Vassar College and the University of Exeter.  Visit him at paul-russell.org.