Jen Benka is the Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets. She worked previously as the managing director of Poets & Writers and for 826 National. She is the author of Pinko and A Box of Longing with Fifty Drawers. Jen holds an MFA from the New School.

Amy King teaches English and creative writing at SUNY Nassau Community College, serves on the Executive Committee for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, moderates the Women’s Poetry Listserv, and she was the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award. She also coedits Poets for Living Waters and blogs for Boston Review.

Mahogany L. Browne is a Cave Canem, Poets House, and Serenbe Focus alumna, playwright, poet, and activist. The publisher of Penmanship Books, she earned her MFA in writing & activism from Pratt Institute, and she serves as the poetry program director at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.