Tara Stillions Whitehead is a writer and filmmaker from Carlsbad, California. She earned her BA in Cinema-Television Production from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts and worked as a DGA assistant director before completing her MFA in Creative Writing at San Diego State University. Her work has appeared in The Rupture, Fairy Tale Review, and Cream City Review, and was selected for Wigleaf's Top 50 in 2021 and 2022. Her essay "The Mother Must Die and Other Lies Fairy Tales Told Me" was a notable selection in Best American Essays 2022, and she has received nominations for Best Small Fictions, Best of the Net, and the Pushcart Prize. She is the author of three hybrid books and serves as Assistant Professor of Film, Video, and Digital Media at Messiah University.