Robert Pinsky founded the Favorite Poem Project during the first of his three terms as United States Poet Laureate. His recent publications are his Selected Poems and PoemJazz, a CD with pianist Laurence Hobgood. He teaches in the creative writing program at Boston University.

Laura Minor is the recipient of the 2016 Emerging Writers Spotlight Award at Florida State University, chosen by D.A. Powell. As a singer-songwriter, she just completed a third record, and she is finishing her debut book of poems as a doctoral candidate at FSU.

Keith Kopka is the managing director of the creative writing program at Florida State University.

Yusef Komunyakaa is author of seventeen collections of poetry. His work has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize and the 2011 Wallace Stevens Award. His plays, musical collaborations, and theater art have been performed internationally. His most recent collection is Emperor of Water Clocks.

Rita Dove is a former US Poet Laureate (1993 – 1995) and recipient of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her book, Thomas and Beulah. Her most recent poetry collections are Collected Poems 1974–2004 and Sonata Mulattica. She is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.