Moderator: S. Kirk Walsh has worked as a writer in schools and other institutions, such as hospitals and domestic violence shelters. In 2007, she founded Austin Bat Cave, a writing and tutoring center for kids that provides free writing workshops. She is a fiction writer and a graduate of NYU’s writing program

Vivé Griffith has directed Free Minds, a program offering free college humanities and writing classes to low-income adults in Austin, Texas since 2007. A published poet and essayist, she holds degrees from the Michener Center for Writers at UT (MFA) and the University of Cincinnati (MA, English).

Joel Arquillos is the executive director at 826LA, a nonprofit writing and tutoring organization that serves youth ages 6–18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and supports teachers by helping them get their students excited about writing.

Ami Walsh is a writer in residence with the Gifts of Art Program at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor. She helped to start a bedside storytelling program for hospitalized patients in 2012. She is a fiction writer and a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.