Kate Milliken’s stories have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Fiction, New Orleans Review, and Santa Monica Review, among others. A graduate of the Bennington College Writing Seminars, the recipient of fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, the Tin House Summer Writer’s Workshop, and several Pushcart Prize nominations, she has also written for television and commercial advertising.
Her debut collection of stories, If I’d Known You Were Coming, published by the University of Iowa Press, was chosen for the 2013 John Simmons Short Fiction Award by author Julie Orringer. Milliken is currently working on a screenplay based on her short story, “Mad River,” as well as completing her novel, Kept Animals, the first chapter of which was named runner-up for the 2013 Dana Award. Kate teaches on behalf of the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.
Shelly Gilbride will read “A Matter of Time” from Kate Milliken’s collection, If I’d Known You Were Coming. Gilbride received her Ph.D in Performance Studies from UC Davis in 2009, specializing in arts policy and contemporary dance history. She is an independent arts consultant, researcher, and producer working with organizations like the James Irvine Foundation and the Davis Art Center. She is the founder of PDA: Public Dance Acts, a series of local, public dance events, and has worked in the Development departments of various arts organizations in Philadelphia, New York City, and Northern California. Gilbride also dances with the Linda Bair Dance Company and A Mused Collective. Long ago, she fancied herself an actress and was a recipient of the Haas Acting Fellowship at The Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, where she performed in a four-person touring theatre troupe, directed, and taught theatre to children in the United States and Bermuda. She performed in numerous regional theatre productions, including I Am a Camera, West Side Story, Cabaret, Music Man, and Carnival, and has taught dance to performers of all ages and experience levels.
Alexa Mergen’s stories appear most recently in Wilderness House Literary Review, Foliate Oak, and Go Read Your Lunch. She writes poetry and essays as well. Visit her website for a list of published work. Alexa edits the blogs Yoga Stanza and Day Poems and volunteers as an assistant fiction editor for Fifth Wednesday Journal.
Analise Langford-Clark will read “Learning to Swim” by Alexa Mergen. She has been involved in community theatre in the Sacramento Area for the last 19 years. Some of her favorite roles include Janet van de Graaff in The Drowsy Chaperone (which she will reprise this summer at the Fair Oaks Theatre Festival), Marga in Echoes in the Heart, and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She has worked for the Sacramento Kings for the last 12 years—Go Kings! She is also a survivor of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and helps to raise money for the hospital where she was lucky enough to be treated, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
