The Prose Pros

Marcus Kliewer is a writer and stop-motion animator. His debut novel, WE USED TO LIVE HERE, began life as a serialized short story on Reddit. Film rights were snapped up by Netflix, and it was acquired by Simon & Schuster in the US for publication even before it had been extended into a full-length novel. He lives in Vancouver, Canada. 

Carla writes smart, escapist fiction full of glamorous settings, questionable decisions, and plenty of RPBB (rich people behaving badly). Also: a tiny bit of romance.After years working at Goldman, Uber, Waymo then running her own startup, she finally returned to her first love—writing.When she’s not deep in fictional worlds, she share the behind-the-scenes reality of publishing—and loves yapping with readers—on social media @carlavassbooks.You can usually find her enjoying a great meal with friends and family, on the back of a horse, or in seat 4368C, heading off on her next adventure.

S.T. Gibson is the #1 Sunday Times and USA Today bestselling author of A DOWRY OF BLOOD. Her gothic romances and dark fantasy novels have been nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award and a British Fantasy Award, and longlisted for a British Science Fiction Association Award. She is a graduate of the creative writing program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and the theological studies program at Princeton Seminary.

Juliet Izon is a New York City and Hudson Valley-based journalist and author. Her work has appeared in national newspapers such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and magazines like Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, and Architectural Digest (a full archive of clips can be found here). Her first novel, The Encore, was published by Union Square & Co./Hachette in March 2026.Born in University Park, MD, Juliet is a proud alumna of Sidwell Friends School and Trinity College, from which she graduated with honors in English Literature. Before becoming a freelance writer, she held editorial staff positions at Bauer Publishing, Niche Media, and Modern Luxury, where she wrote on a variety of lifestyle topics including entertainment, travel, restaurants, and design.In her free time, you can often find her traveling the world with her husband Mike and daughter Aveline. But when she’s home, she’s probably at the theater catching a new dance performance or off-Broadway show.

Marisa Walz writes books about people behaving badly. Her debut novel, Good Intentions, was an instant USA TODAY bestseller.​A lifelong writer and an alum of The Writers’ Loft in Chicago, Marisa’s authorly aspirations started at the age of seven with her painstakingly detailed childhood diaries and some horrible poetry. In her teen years, off the avocado-green Acer in her parents’ basement, she ran e-zines that regurgitated the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle advice she read about in Cosmo and Seventeen. She finally got her first paid writing gig in college as an opinion columnist and reporter for the campus newspaper, where she may or may not have fabricated a couple man-on-the-street quotes.​These days, Marisa sneaks her writing in before her two young children wake up and after they go to bed. ​She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, kids, and a labradoodle that throws balls to itself and eats whole entire socks.​