Tom Sleigh's books include Station Zed, Army Cats (John Updike Award), and Space Walk (Kingsley Tufts Award). In February 2018, House of Fact, House of Ruin (poems) and The Land Between Two Rivers (prose) will appear. He teaches at Hunter College and works as a journalist in Africa and the Middle East.

Jeffrey Brown is chief correspondent for arts, culture, and society for the PBS NewsHour, and author of the poetry collection, The News.

Christopher Merrill has published many books of poetry, translations, and nonfiction, most recently, Boat, Necessities, The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War, and Self-Portrait with Dogwood. He directs the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

Eliza Griswold, a poet and journalist, is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at NYU.