Claudia La Rocco is the author, most recently, of the novella Drive By (Smooth Friend) and the chapbook-length essay Certain Things (Afternoon Editions). With musician/composer Phillip Greenlief, she is animals & giraffes, an improvisation collective that has released three albums and performs with collaborators from various disciplines. Her multi-genre novel petit cadeau was published in live, digital, and print editions by The Chocolate Factory. Her lectures and live works have been presented by The Walker Art Center, Dancehouse Australia, The Whitney Museum of American Art, et al. She edited I Don’t Poem: An Anthology of Painters (Off the Park Press) and Dancers, Buildings and People in the Streets, the catalogue for Danspace Projectʼs PLATFORM 2015, which she curated. Prior to founding The Back Room, La Rocco was a critic for The New York Times and editorial director of Open Space. Her second selected writings is forthcoming from Soberscove Press.

Elisabeth Nicula is an artist and writer in San Francisco. Her essays have appeared in Momus, Small Press Traffic’s The Back Room, SFMOMA’s Open Space, New Life Quarterly Magazine, PAPER Magazine, and elsewhere. Smooth Friend is her ad hoc small press for publishing new short fiction and poetry online and in pamphlet-style books. Her second publication, San Francisco Review of Whatever, is for essays and artwork by (mostly) Bay Area contributors on the usual and unusual critical subjects. She amassed over 100,000 photographs of two California scrub jays over a five-year period of deep observation and friendship.

Camille Roy is a writer of fiction, poetry, and plays. Her fiction collection Honey Mine was published by Nightboat in 2021. Previous works include Sherwood Forest, a book of poetry and prose from Futurepoem, and Cheap Speech, a play from Leroy Chapbooks, as well as ​Swarm (two novellas, from Black Star Series). She co-edited ​Biting The Error: Writers Explore Narrative​, a book of essays by writers on their own experimental prose practices published by Coach House Books. Earlier books include ​The Rosy Medallions from Kelsey St. Press and Cold Heaven​ from Leslie Scalapino’s O Books. Recent work has appeared in Baest #9 (https://www.baestjournal.com/issue-9-list) and The Swan's Rag (Issue 5, Dirty Swan Projects). More information can be found at https://www.camilleroy.me/.

Katherine is a chef and artist based in San Francisco, working at the intersection of food and fiber. She cooks seasonally, with a background in whole animal butchery and skills honed in the city's vibrant restaurant kitchens. Her food nourishes bodies driving meaningful change in their communities. In the studio, Katherine weaves large-scale tapestries on twin looms—slow, intricate, and steeped in the language of ancient textiles and Anglo-Norman illuminated texts. Whether in the kitchen or at the loom, she creates with purpose, edge, and heat.