Traci L. Gourdine chairs the Creative Writing Department. She is Professor of English at American River College in Sacramento, and chairs the Poet Laureate Program for the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. Ms. Gourdine is co-editor of an anthology of Native American teenage writing for Candlewick Press, and has published her poetry and short stories in anthologies and national literary magazines. In November of 2000, she was inducted into The Poet's Hall of Fame, and recognized as an influential writer within the teaching profession

Michael Buckley, MFA, is a widely-published fiction writer whose work has appeared in Best American Non-Required Reading 2003, The Southern California Review, Struggle, Transcurrents MFA Journal, Spot Lit Literary Magazine, Rip Rap, and Watermark.  He is a frequent contributor to Alaska Quarterly Review and a former London-based correspondent for the Rotary International Newsletter.  Mr. Buckley is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Transcurrents Literary Journal, and he has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize for short fiction. His short story collection Miniature Men was published by World Parade Books in 2011.

Zay Amsbury is a New York-based playwright and screenwriter. Last fall he received a screenwriting award from the prestigious international film academy Group ESRA for his adaptation of his original theatrical musical Au Claire De La Lune. He is currently working under commission from MCC Theater in New York to write a full-length version of the musical. Other production credits include An Alan Turing Fantasy at The New School for Drama, New York, Sweet Self at Impact Theater Company, Berkeley, and 10,000 Light-Years from Home with Small Change Theater, Boston. He has won best of show at the NYU’s Festival of New Works and twice at the UC Santa Cruz Chautauqua festival. Zay earned his BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and his MFA in Playwriting from the New School for Drama. Zay attended CSSSA as a student in 1990, 1991, and 1992.

Ruth McKee is a writer and playwright. She is the 2009 Stanley Drama Award Recipient for her play Stray which recently received a reading at the Black Dahlia Theatre in Los Angeles. Her play The Nightshade Family, a 2007 Stanley Award Finalist, was produced in the 2007 Summer Play Festival New York City and received readings at the Playwrights Horizons and the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta. Other recent works include: Otherwise Engaged, Actors Theatre of Louisville; Security Check, Six Figures Theatre Company, Mail Returned, University of California San Diego and The Noise Room, HB Playwrights Foundation. Originally from Canada by way of Bangladesh and Kenya, Ruth holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and earned her MFA in playwriting from the University of San Diego. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches playwriting at University of California, San Diego and Idyllwild Arts Academy.