Gabriel Hart is an author, editor, journalist, and publisher from Morongo Valley, CA. His punk-noir novel On High at Red Tide is out now from Pig Roast Publishing. His essay "Live Free, Love Safe, or Kill: On Luigi Mangione and Daniel Victor Jones" is included in the new anthology YOU MAY NOW FAIL TO DESTROY ME: American Writers On Their Most Dangerous Beliefs, edited by Blake Butler and Ken Baumann. Hart is the editor-in-chief/publisher of BEYOND THE LAST ESTATE, a print-only magazine featuring "creative reporting on contemporary literature." He reports daily at Z1077fm.com. 

Gina Frangello is the author of Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a “Best of 2021” pick. She has also written four novels, including A Life in Men and Every Kind of Wanting. Her latest work, Elena Ferrante: The Neapolitan Novels, explores Ferrante’s iconic series and will be featured at the festival. Gina is a lead editor at Row House Publishing and co-founder of Circe Consulting. She also teaches in the low-residency MFA program at the University of Nevada-Reno/Tahoe.

Jennifer Lewis is a writer, editor, and publisher of Red Light Lit. Her debut short story collection, The New Low (Black Lawrence Press), was an SPD Bestseller. She is the winner of the Nomadic Press Bindle Award and The Los Angeles Review Flash Fiction Award. Her fiction has appeared in Cosmonauts Avenue, Midnight Breakfast, The Los Angeles Press, and CRAFT. Her nonfiction has been featured in The Rumpus, The Creative Independent, and Alta Journal, where her piece “The High Desert’s Funkiest Art Gallery” won the Los Angeles Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award. She teaches at The Writing Salon.

Katie Nartonis is a writer, curator and documentary filmmaker. She will debut two new books at this year's festival. The first is a reissue of Jack Rogers Hopkins: California Design Maverick and Volume 2 of California Desert Artists. Her next book, Chasing Eudorah: Adventures in California Design Art History includes essays on influential mid-Century California artists and makers is slated for early 2026. Her exhibition, Crafting the Counterculture: Garry Knox Bennett and Nicki Marx is now open at the Maloof Foundation. She serves as Gallery Director for the HDA: Hi Desert Art Center in Yucca Valley, California.

Kimberly Lee, JD, is the author of Have You Seen Him, a gripping thriller known for keeping readers up past bedtime. A former attorney, she’s now a versatile writer, creativity coach, and workshop facilitator. Kimberly is a graduate of Stanford and UC Davis School of Law and an Amherst Writers & Artists affiliate, also certified in SoulCollage®, Guided Autobiography, and multiple therapeutic writing methods. Her work has appeared in LA Parent, Minerva Rising, and numerous anthologies. She teaches with Hugo House, The Loft, and more. Kimberly lives in Southern California with her husband and three children.

Palo Xanto emerges from the raw stillness of Joshua Tree, channeling desert magic into stripped-down, soul-stirring sound. Blending bluesy guitar, desert rock textures, and alt-hip hop rhythms, his music pulses with primal groove and poetic depth. It's a haunting, hypnotic journey for dreamers, seekers, and misfits drawn to something deeper.

As an active artist and community builder, Palo curates and hosts various events including a communal event series called HOMESTEAD SESSIONS which features some of high desert's top artists and poets for an intimate and magical experience.  

Rebekah Meola is a content strategist, publisher, and community builder based in the Mojave Desert. She founded Plum Sales & Marketing and helps lead the Twentynine Palms Book Festival. Previously, Rebekah founded and scaled Plum Magazine, an independent women’s health and lifestyle title, to national distribution. Today she consults with authors, nonprofits, and businesses on content strategy, branding, and audience growth across web, email, and events. Passionate about storytelling, heritage, and the arts, she amplifies diverse voices while strengthening the High Desert’s literary and cultural landscape.

Ruth Nolan is editor of No Place for a Puritan: the Literature of California's Deserts. A former wildland firefighter in the Mojave Desert and beyond, her desert-centric writing has most recently been published in Writing the Golden State: The New Literary Terrain of California (Angel City Press), Boom, California, McSweeney's, East Bay Times, KCET Los Angeles, Joshua Tree: Where Two Deserts Meet (Wildsam Guide), Los Angeles Fiction: Southland Writing by Southland Writers (Red Hen Press;), and Campfire Stories Volume II: Tales from America’s National Parks and Trails. She is the author of the poetry books After the Dome Fire and Ruby Mountain, and is Professor of English and creative writing at College of the Desert. She lives in Twentynine Palms.

Steve Brown is an award-winning desert photojournalist, historian, and musician.  Steve became known for his investigative journalism in the Coachella Valley and later, he produced The Sun Runner magazine for over 15 years, along with visitor guides and maps for the Joshua Tree area, as well as two seasons of Southwest Stories, a desert travel show for PBS in Southern California.  He served as president of the California Deserts Visitors Association, and has written and produced historical documentaries for PBS and the FNX network.  He now works for Copper Mountain College in public relations and media production.

Steve Hochman has covered popular (and unpopular) music for 40 years. He’s a featured writer in SPIN, New Orleans monthly OffBeat and the Bluegrass Situation and frequent moderator of events at the Grammy Museum and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He was a core member of the Los Angeles Times’ Calendar Section team for more than 20 years, with many bylines as well in Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety and other publications. Hochman co-authored the 2023 Melissa Etheridge graphic biography Heartstrings and has written dozens of liner notes. In recent years, with the loving encouragement of his wife, author Susan Hayden, he has also embraced a more personal voice, writing pieces for her monthly live literary series, Library Girl.

Susan Rukeyser (she/her) writes and lives in Joshua Tree. She created the Desert Split Open for literary work that is feminist, queer, and otherwise radical. Her short prose is collected in the forthcoming, Bad Words (World Split Open Press). Susan’s new novel, The Worst Kind of Girl (Red Light Lit Press), is set in Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley. 

Terria Smith, a tribal member of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, is editor of News from Native California magazine and director of the Berkeley Roundhouse, Heyday’s California Indian publishing program. Smith is also the editor of the 2023 anthology Know We Are Here: Voices of Native California Resistance and author of the forthcoming book I Love You So Many: A Native Memoir of Seeking Adventure, Sharing Culture, and Building Family Around the World. She received her undergraduate degree at Cal Poly Humboldt (formally Humboldt State University) and earned her master’s degree at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Todd Aaron Jensen is an award-winning journalist, editor, author, co-writer, and story analyst with featured bylines in more than 100 publications around the world, including GQ, Esquire, American Way, Written By, Mean, Icon, Moving Pictures, and Costco Connection. Jensen has interviewed more than a thousand of the world’s most prominent public figures, including filmmakers, musicians, authors, and spiritual leaders. His interviews with Hunter S. Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, and Jim Harrison have been anthologized multiple times. He has worked with story departments at Warner Bros and Geffen Pictures, created a film/TV production course for Los Angeles County, Warner Bros, and Burbank Unified Schools, co-written multiple books, and managed cross-platform marketing and publicity for countless publishing projects. Jensen lives in Los Angeles and is the proud father of three extraordinary sons.

Vic Terry is a playwright, performer, and producer based in the High Desert, and the force behind the independent production company Good Vibe Cinema. She performs regularly at The Palms in Wonder Valley with the Laughing Bones Sketch Comedy Troupe and co-created their annual Hi-Desert Comedy Campout. Before settling in the desert, Vic toured nationally with her partner in their award-winning Fringe show Desperate to be Seen, Horrified of Being Known: a Ghost Story. In addition to theater, she has written and produced Super 8 films and co-founded the San Diego Halloween Film Festival.