Kim Culbertson

Founder

Kim holds an M.S. in Education, an MFA in Fiction, and has been teaching high school since 1997. She is the award-winning author of five YA novels. Her titles Catch a Falling Star; The Possibility of Now; and The Wonder of Us were Scholastic book club selections. She won the Northern California Book Award for YA fiction for Instructions for a Broken Heart as well as had The Possibility of Now named a Bank Street Best Book of the Year. Her first novel for adults, Other People’s Kids (Sibylline 2025) is about (surprise, surprise) teachers and was named a 2025 CALIBA Golden Poppy finalist for Fiction. 

In addition to teaching high school, Kim sits on the Writers Council for National Writing Project and works as a Fiction mentor with Dominican University of California’s MFA in Creative Writing. With 100-Word Stories: A Short Form for Expansive Writing (Heinemann 2023), Kim finally found a way to blend her two professional loves, teaching and writing, into one book. These small, bright things have transformed her classroom and her own writing. She loves sharing their potential with other teachers and writers. www.kimculbertson.com

Grant Faulkner

Founder

Grant Faulkner (he/him) is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story. He has published three books on writing and two story collections.

His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines and he has been anthologized in collections such as Norton’s Flash Fiction America and New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction. His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer.

He serves on the National Writing Project’s Writer’s Council, LitNet’s Steering Committee, and Aspen Words’ Creative Council. He’s also the co-host of the podcast Write-minded, and publishes the weekly newsletter, Intimations: A Writer’s Discourse.

Tavia Stewart

Founder

Tavia Stewart (she/her) is a Bay Area writer, immersive storyteller, and creative placemaker with a deep love for short-form fiction. She is the co-author of Ready, Set, Novel (Chronicle Books) and created novel-writing workbooks for young writers through NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program, where she served as COO for ten years.

She co-founded Chapter 510, an Oakland youth writing center, where she leads the Dept. of Make / Believe—a whimsical storefront for storytelling and imagination. 

Tavia has worked with McSweeney’s, 826 Valencia, and ZYZZYVA, and her flash fiction has appeared in Smokelong Quarterly.

Christina Lopez

Intern

Christina Lopez (she/her) writes like she reads – at least five things at a time and of varying genres. She started writing flash fiction during her time in Dominican University’s MFA in Creative Writing program where she discovered a love for the 100-word story. When she’s avoiding the page she can be found baking vegan desserts or exploring the outdoors with her dog, Opal. Photo credit: Cindy Pavlinac