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Debut Author Podcast: 2025 Rising Star Award Finalists

Alice Lyon (she/they) is a writer based in Scandinavia, with roots in Missouri. Their flash fiction has appeared in Paragraph Planet, the 2025 National Flash Fiction Day anthology, Flare Literary Magazine, Underbelly Press, and elsewhere. She received second place in the New Writers 100-Word Competition and was longlisted for the New Writers Flash Fiction Prize. They are currently writing their next novel.

Kristin Jarvis Adams is an active member of WFWA, Pitch to Published, and Jericho Writers. Her memoir, THE CHICKEN WHO SAVED US, received national attention in the Wall Street Journal and NBC News. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, ParentMap, Journey, The Autism Blog, and elsewhere. A Pacific Northwest native, she spends her days writing, working as a parent advocate for children with special needs, and chasing a flock of belligerent but loveable chickens around her backyard. As a professional artist, hula dancer, and certified book coach.

April Quarto Wright is inspired by all facets of storytelling. She received her book coaching certification through Author Accelerator and enjoys helping aspiring authors through all stages of their writing process. She is an active member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and Author Accelerator Book Coaches community. As a USMC spouse, her primary job is packing and unpacking from multiple U.S. and overseas moves - thirteen and counting! She is a second-generation Asian American with family roots in Hawai’i. Most of her writing is done in an ice rink as a hockey mom of three boys, and she will bring her cherished cookbook collection wherever the military sends her family next. For book coaching service and current writing projects go to  www.aprilwrightcreative.com.

Jeanette Zaichkin has spent most of her life in the Seattle area, where she fell in love with writing when she won first place for her fifth and sixth grade essays for Fire Prevention Week and National Dental Week. However, her “real” career has been in neonatal nursing.  She’s widely published in health care literature and served as executive editor for a nursing journal. She is a graduate of the Stanford Online Writing Certificate (OWC) program where she worked on this manuscript. Jeanette lives in the lovely middle of nowhere on Harstine Island, Washington with her husband and their dog, Murphy.

Lori Singaraju is a middle school English teacher, mom of two, and military spouse currently living in Yokosuka, Japan. When not busy attempting to convince preteens to punctuate their sentences, she is generally reading, snuggling her girls, traveling, eating sashimi and/or writing her next book.