Born and raised in China, Xiaoyan developed a strong interest in playwriting while studying under Philip Kan Gotanda at Berkeley. As a playwright, Xiaoyan is intrigued by the performativity in everyday life and how we are constantly subject to and adjusting to others' gaze and interpretation. She is interested in deconstructing existing grand narratives and shifting our perceptions toward deeper complexities of the problems we are grappling with. She has been an O’Neil Semifinalist, BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition Regional Winner, and KCACTF Region 5 Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award Recipient. Some of her short plays have been developed at 24 Hour Plays: Nationals and KCACTF(Region 5). Xiaoyan is currently an MFA candidate at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. 

Nina Morrison is a playwright, director, teaching artist and activist. In the past year Nina’s musical, Hearts on Fire had a staged reading at The Jungle Theater, Minneapolis; she directed the play The Roommate by Jen Silverman at Riverside Theatre; and Nina's play The Age of Innocence was included in the Playwrights' Center's Venturous List. She is a lecturer for the IowaLink Program at the University of Iowa. She teaches playwriting for Chicago Dramatists and for the Iowa Young Writer's Studio. Nina was a 2018 and 2019 finalist for New Dramatists and a 2019 finalist for the Jerome Playwriting Fellowship. Nina is currently based in Iowa City, and, before Iowa, she was based in New York City. Nina’s work was presented at Dixon Place, The HOT! Festival of Queer Performance, The NYC Int’l Fringe Festival, HERE Arts Center and the Little Theatre series. Nina was a Dixon Place Artist-in-Residence, and she was a WORKSPACE Writer-in-Residence, a residency program of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She holds an MFA in Directing and an MFA in Playwriting both from the University of Iowa.