Stoddard, Warren, II: - Born and raised in the Hill Country of central Texas, Warren Stoddard II attended Texas State University and received a BA in English. Following his graduation in 2018, he travelled to Syria to fight as a member of the Kurdish YPG in the war against the Islamic State. He was later wounded in action liberating the city of Ash Sha'fah from ISIS control. He now lives in Birmingham, Alabama. His short work has been featured in Dice Magazine, Into the Void, The Barely South Review, and numerous other publications around the globe. His short story The Way of the World was the winner of the 2018 Gates-Thomas Prize for Fiction, and When This Plane Lands was listed as Notable Literary Nonfiction in Best American Essays: 2021. He is also the author of No Birds in Yesterday, a novella.