Dusty-Anne Rhodes is an American living in permanent European exile. In an earlier reincarnation, she was a classical pianist specialized in Bach. Her first book -- called Hard -- contains 29 non-fiction vignettes, "tiny truths". It was published in the spring of 2013 by Pure Slush. She enjoys taking a close look at people around her and their foibles. Nor does she spare herself from this scrutiny. She's been studying the condition humaine all her life.

Amma Serwaah-Panin, has the most delightful voice to describe the strangeness of her childhood moving from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe to Botswana, and finally stopping for a few years in Swaziland. Despite a strong conviction that the tiny mountain kingdom is one of the most beautiful places in the world, she has since moved countries again five times for school, work, and curiosity. Now she has settled in Berlin to research decision making amongst rural farming communities in India. Amma writes to collect the scattered fragments of her life as a constant foreigner, knowing that without a grand narrative these fragments will roll away into sticky, obscure corners like a bag of unsupervised marbles.

Chuck McDaniel has, time and again, returned to college to pursue degrees he didn’t need. (To this day he sees himself as a recovering student.) Somewhere along the way he decided the only practical thing he could do with his eclectic skill set was become a teacher. Over the past thirty years Chuck has taught everything from English and Drama to History and Psychology in such diverse settings as San Antonio, Berlin, and Amman. A native Texan, Chuck currently resides in Berlin with his wife Becci. His hobbies include reading, hiking, listening to new Country and classic Rock music, and drinking German beer.

Peter Auf der Heyde, like his favorite author Jack London, writes a lot of crap to be able to afford to write the things he wants to write (and that nobody pays for). He draws inspiration from 30 plus years spent in Africa and his travels as a sports journalist. Still struggling to find the right genre to fit into, he nevertheless fights consistently not to be placed in a box. Social comment cannot be evaded.

Noreen Flynn was born into a family of Irish Catholics who came to England to live and survive. Born in London and growing up in Highgate, she attended the obligatory Catholic schools and later studied photography at Guildford School of Art (much to the disappointment of her parents). She visited West Berlin as a student and was overwhelmed by what she saw that could be photographed. She decided to move here and try her luck as a freelance photographer. Having worked mostly in Film and TV as a stills photographer, she started writing when a friend asked her to join her in a writing course. A body runs dry but the pen never ceases to bleed.

Andrew Fentem is from the North West of England and has lived in Germany since 2002. Two years after his arrival he decided to move to Berlin to find out if Berliners really were as bad as those in other parts of Germany told him. Pleasantly surprised at what he found, he decided to stay and write about it.

Araxi Utidjian was born in Iraq and raised in England for the very early bit, Trinidad for a blissful more than a bit, Pittsburgh for the hardest part, and Cambridge Massachusetts, which was a piece of heaven, except she hit teenage-hood there and so started writing her own story with all kinds of hell. I say she was ‘raised'… Debatable. She certainly got taller, though resents an absence of roughly three inches in the leg department. She is thankful for having survived. From age 14 onwards she has lived in London, more or less, with many attempts at other cities. Berlin is her latest experiment. Her stories are, at this juncture, shocking and funny autobiographies. She has a great love for sci fi, has written some, wants to write more, and is pleased with the way things are going as autobiography and sci fi are beginning to resemble one another. Hard to keep a step ahead of our world, and who needs to anymore. The future is now and there may not be a whole lot left. Her stories are full of hope and urgency. She likes our planet and everybody on it, even the bad guys…

Annie Brandt thinks she moved to Berlin yesterday, but no, it's been almost 30 years. Home is all in the mind, she decides, as she sets off to look at Spring. Green things splash open and bleed color all around, while high above, aliens look down with their time-lapse eyes, enjoying the rhythms of wings and the dusted off words that float up out of human throats. She flicks her pen deep into the world's river of cultural clutter, sometimes drawing up aliens, and sometimes just good ole home-grown Americans.

Matt Vunush never finished his degree in English and French literature. He has published mostly non-fiction related to the impact of manual labor.