A graduate of Amherst College and the University of Virginia, Jay Silverman has received Fulbright, Mellon, and NEH fellowships. Dr. Silverman has taught at Virginia Highlands Community College and at Nassau Community College where he received the Honors Program award for Excellence in Teaching and where he also teaches in the College Bound Program of the Nassau County Mental Health Association, and in NCC’s Achilles Program for gifted students with disabilities. Since the death of his wife, Beverly Jensen, Dr. Silverman has edited her fiction; Stephen King included “Wake” in 2007 Best American Short Stories.

As Chair of the English Department of Nassau Community College, Diana Roberts Wienbroer coordinated a department of 150 faculty members and served on the Executive Council of the Association of Departments of English. Besides teaching writing for over forty years, both in Texas and New York, she has studied and taught film criticism. Since her retirement from NCC, she has taught seminars on Internet research and effective business writing.

Elaine Hughes taught writing for more than twenty-five years, primarily at Hinds Community College in Raymond, Mississippi, and at Nassau Community College. She also conducted many writing workshops for the Esalen Institute and other organizations. In 2000 she won a Mississippi Arts Council grant for creative nonfiction. She is also the author of Writing from the Inner Self. In 2001 Elaine Hughes passed away after more than twenty years of victories over breast cancer.