Sarah Menkedick’s writing has been featured or is forthcoming in Harper’s, Oxford American, The Believer, The Paris Review Daily, The New Inquiry, Amazon’s Kindle Singles, and elsewhere. Her story Homing Instincts was selected as notable in The Best American Essays 2014. She is the founding editor of Vela, an online magazine of nonfiction inspired by travel and written by women.

Mitch Moxley has written for publications including GQ, The Atlantic, Grantland, TIME, and the New York Times, and he is the features editor at Roads & Kingdoms, an online journal of international reporting. He’s the author of Apologies to My Censor: The High and Low Adventures of a Foreigner in China, a memoir about the six years he lived in Beijing.

Leigh Ann Henion is the author of Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World. She has contributed to Smithsonian, The Washington Post Magazine, and Oxford American, among other publications. Henion has received a variety of accolades, including a Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers, and her work has three times been cited as notable in The Best American Travel Writing.

Teri Johnson is the creator, producer and host of the web series Travelista Teri. Her passion for adventure and storytelling has taken her to 60 countries, where she has hunted with the Kuku-Yalanji aborigines in Australia and trekked through Dogon country in Mali. In addition to being a freelance writer for TravelChannel.com and Huffington Post, she frequently speaks on travel at various festivals and conferences.

Kevin Fedarko has written for Outside, Esquire, and National Geographic Adventure. His first book, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon, was a New York Times bestseller. His adventure stories from the Himalayas, the Horn of Africa, and the Colorado River have been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing.

Patricia Schultz is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and 1,000 Places to See in the United States and Canada Before You Die. A veteran travel journalist with 25 years of experience, she has written for guides such as Frommer’s and Berlitz and periodicals including The Wall Street Journal and Travel Weekly.

Andy Isaacson is a freelance writer and photographer whose stories have appeared in The New York Times, Smithsonian, AFAR and National Geographic Traveler. He’s the recipient of four Lowell Thomas Awards for travel writing and photography. He lives in his hometown of Brooklyn.

Tracy Ross won the 2009 National Magazine Award for her essay The Source of All Things. She later turned that into a book, published by Free Press. Her stories have been anthologized in Best American Sports Writing, Best American Magazine Writing, and Best American Travel Writing.

Chris Taylor is a writer based in Bangkok and Southwest China. He wrote, co-wrote and updated Lonely Planet guides to several Asian destinations, including China, Tibet, and Cambodia. His first novel, published in 2010, is Harvest Season.

Eva Holland is a freelance writer and editor based in Canada’s Yukon Territory. She’s the co-editor of World Hum, a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a founding contributor to Vela Magazine. She’s a regular contributor to SB Nation Longform and a former online columnist for Outside.

Brian Kevin is the author of The Footloose American: Following the Hunter S. Thompson Trail Across South America. He’s a contributing editor at Down East magazine and an occasional contributor to Outside, Travel + Leisure, Men’s Journal, Sierra, Audubon, and the Fodor’s series of travel guidebooks.