Geoff Schumacher is an author, columnist, speaker, and newspaper executive in Las Vegas. He is the author of Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia & Palace Intrigue, February 2008, and Sun, Sin & Suburbia: An Essential History of Modern Las Vegas, in October 2004. Both books were published by Stephens Press. Schumacher was a reporter, editorial writer and city editor for the Las Vegas Sun for ten years and editor of Las Vegas CityLife for three years. He founded and edited the Las Vegas Mercury, which ceased publishing after a four-year run. Today, he is the director of community publications for Stephens Media, overseeing editorial operations of numerous weekly newspapers and special sections. Schumacher also writes a weekly public affairs column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and serves as editor of CityLife Books, an imprint of Stephens Press. Born in Wisconsin, Schumacher grew up in Southern Nevada, and earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1988.
Megan Edwards
With nothing left to lose after a fast-moving wildfire burned her house down in 1993, Megan Edwards ended her career as a Latin teacher and school principal and launched her writing career as a newspaper columnist in Southern California. While unencumbered by house and stuff, she spent seven years “on the road” exploring North America. After founding RoadTripAmerica. com with her husband in 1996, she settled in Las Vegas in 2000. The author of Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier and Caution: Funny Signs Ahead, Edwards has written for the Las Vegas Weekly, and she is the executive editor of Living-Las-Vegas.com. She’s working on a murder mystery set in Las Vegas.
Dayvid Figler
A lifelong Nevadan, Dayvid Figler practices law in Las Vegas while dreaming of becoming a full-time writer. In the meanwhile, he keeps his dabbling toes in the media stream with multiple appearances on Court TV and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, as well as storytelling stages and radio programs around the country. He’s also been featured in numerous short story anthologies, penned magazine pieces, and showed up on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? where he unequivocally answered the title question: “Not me.” He’s working on a creative nonfiction book about Las Vegas from the vantage of someone who’s not leaving anytime soon.
K.W. Jeter
A native of Los Angeles, K.W. Jeter relocated to Las Vegas with his wife, Geri, after residences in Spain, England, and San Francisco. He is the author of more than two dozen published novels, including the notorious Dr. Adder, described by Philip K. Dick as “a masterpiece . . . a truly wonderful novel that destroys once and for all your conception of the limitations of science fiction.” He also has written screenplays for European film studios, as well as worked as a writing instructor and consultant, and social researcher in the field of AIDS-related death and bereavement studies. His latest project is a novel for St. Martin’s Press, based on folk tales by the Brothers Grimm previously untranslated into English. News and updates about his writing can be found at www.kwjeter.com.
Oksana K. Marafioti
Oksana K. Marafioti was born in Riga, Latvia, into a family of performers. After years of touring Europe, she emigrated to the United States, and earned a bachelor’s degree in film from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a regular contributor to “The Nervous Breakdown,” an online literary author collective. Her memoir, American Gypsy, is due out from McMillan’s Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2011.
Juan Martinez
Born in Colombia, Juan Martinez is a doctoral candidate in literature at UNLV. He earned his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Central Florida. His work has appeared in Glimmer Train, McSweeney’s, Conjunctions, Redivider, West Branch, River Teeth, The Morning News, Santa Monica Review, Sudden Fiction Latino, and elsewhere. Visit and say hi at http://fulmerford.com.
P Moss
P Moss, a writer, gambler, and bar owner, has been at Las Vegas’ cultural forefront for almost twenty years. He grew up in the Midwest and studied journalism at the University of Minnesota. Shortly after, he moved west, drawn to the gambling action of Las Vegas. He went on to live in New York City and Los Angeles, but always desired to return to Las Vegas. In 1992 he did return and created a bar reflecting his style and personality, the world-renowned Double Down Saloon. In 2006, Moss opened a second Double Down Saloon in New York City. He also owns the Polynesian-themed Frankie’s Tiki Room in Las Vegas. His short story collection Blue Vegas was published by CityLife Books in 2010.
Alisa Nutting
Alissa Nutting received her MFA degree from the University of Alabama, where she served as editor of the Black Warrior Review. Her writing has appeared in Tin House, Fence, BOMB, the fairy tale anthology My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, as well as other journals. She is the author of the short story collection Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls (Starcherone, October 2010). She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she has received Cobain and Schaeffer Fellowships in Fiction. She is fiction editor of the literary journal Witness and managing editor of Fairy Tale Review.