Doug Hesse is Professor of Writing and University Distinguished Scholar at The University of Denver, where he has served as Founding Executive Director of Writing. He has been president of the National Council of Teachers of English, chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, president of both the Council of Writing Program Administrators, and chair of the MLA Division on Teaching. Currently he is chair of the Association of Writing Across the Curriculum and of the MLA Forum on Nonfiction. He is co-author of four books, including Creating Nonfiction (with Becky Bradway), and more than ninety essays and chapters, including in Fourth Genre, College English, College Composition and Communication, and Writing on the Edge. He has won the Donald Murray Prize for creative nonfiction and been listed among "Notable Essays" in Best American Essays.

Laura Julier was longtime editor of the award-winning literary journal Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction. Simultaneously, she directed the undergraduate major in professional writing at Michigan State University, where she was Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures. She led faculty development in writing across campus, directing the Faculty Writing Project, and won the Michigan Campus Compact Outstanding Faculty Award. Her numerous publications include personal essays and articles/chapters about service learning and creative nonfiction.