Peter Twal's poetry has appeared in Best New Poets, Kenyon Review Online, and West Branch Wired. He earned his MFA from the University of Notre Dame, and he is a recipient of the Samuel and Mary Anne Hazo Poetry Award.

Philip Metres is the author of a number of books and chapbooks, including Sand Opera, Pictures at an Exhibition, A Concordance of Leaves, and To See the Earth. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, has garnered a Lannan Fellowship, two NEAs, the Hunt Prize, and the Cleveland Arts Prize.

Mohja Kahf’s books of poetry are Hagar Poems and E-mails from Scheherazad. She is the author of a novel, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. Kahf, who teaches at the University of Arkansas, has a manuscript of essays on Syria and two poetry manuscripts ready for publication.

Zeina Hashem Beck's second collection, Louder than Hearts, won the May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize. Her chapbooks are 3arabi Song, winner of the Rattle Chapbook Prize, and There Was and How Much There Was, selected by Carol Ann Duffy as a Laureate's Choice. Her first book is To Live in Autumn.

Farid Matuk is the author of This Isa A Nice Neighborhood and the chapbook My Daughter La Chola. He serves on the poetry editorial team for Fence and is an assistant professor of English at the University of Arizona. The Real Horse, his second full-length collection, is forthcoming.