Tara Stillions Whitehead is a writer and filmmaker from Carlsbad, California. She received her BA in Cinema-Television Production from University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts and worked as a DGA assistant director before earning her MFA in Fiction from San Diego State University. Her work has appeared in places like The Rupture, Cream City Review, and trampset, and she had work included in the Wigleaf Top 50 in 2021 and 2022. She released her debut chapbook/concept album, Blood Histories, with Galileo Press in 2021, and her second story collection, The Year of the Monster, released with Unsolicited Press, is a 2022 Maya Angelou Fiction Award and 2022 Aspen Words Award nominee. She currently lives and teaches in Central Pennsylvania, where she lives with her family and two cats.