Judy Akinyi aka Saga McOdongo was a teacher at the Kenya Polytechnic until 2001 when she was introduced to drug trafficking by one of the most feared operators in the murky business at the time.

Stephanie Sherman does things that are deemed useless in a capitalist society, like poetry-writing and dancing. She spent two years in Quito, Ecuador on a Fulbright scholarship, teaching and choreographing works that reflected the realities

Marian Brown St. Onge retired recently from her position of founding Director of the Center for International Partnerships and Programs at Boston College-where she also taught and at one time directed the University’s Women’s Studies

Jen Hirt was the 2004 writer-in-residence at Bernheim Arboretum and was the 2003 recipient of an Ohioana library grant. Her essays (twice nominated for Pushcart Prizes) and poems have most recently been published in Rougarou

Lisa Freedman recommends to all two dreamy experiences: haircuts by Oscar Adrian in his salon on East Fifth Street; “The School of Dreams” writing workshop taught by Laura Cronk at the New School. When she’s

Dickson started his career at Level One Productions (Nairobi, Kenya), where he worked on a huge variety of projects including commercials, game shows, wildlife and Factual Documentaries. Since he left there to go freelance in

Tom Beer grew up in Corning, New York, and Concord Massachusetts, and attended Carleton College. He has worked at Bantam Books, and from 1995 to 2000 he was an editor at Out magazine. Since then

Renee Mboya writes for www.kenyaimagine.com. She came back to Nairobi half a decade ago after a childhood in exile on a dusty farm, in an industrial town, on the slopes of Kilimambogo; and found it

Melanie Pappadis received her MFA in creative writing from The New School. Her novel Searching Ana won The New School Fiction Chapbook Competition and was a finalist in Sarabande Books’ Mary McCarthy Prize in Fiction.