LeAnne Howe (Choctaw) writes novels, plays, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Her memoir, Choctalking on Other Realities won the inaugural 2014 MLA Prize for Studies in Native American Literature. Other awards include the 2012 United States Artist Ford Fellowship, and an American Book Award for Shell Shaker.

Sharbari Ahmed is the author of The Ocean of Mrs Nagai: Stories. Her fiction has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Caravan, The Asian Pacific American Journal, and Wasafiri, among others. She wrote for the ABC show Quantico, season one. She teaches in the MFA program at Manhattanville College.

Richard Blanco is the youngest, first Latino, and first openly gay person to serve as the Presidential Inaugural Poet. Author of two memoirs and three poetry books, his honors include awards from the University of Pittsburgh, PEN, the Paterson Prize, Lambda Literary, and Education Ambassador for the Academy of American Poets.

Dean Rader's recent books include Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry; Suture (sonnets written with Simone Muench); and Bullets Into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence in the U.S. (with Brian Clements and Alexandra Teague). He is a professor at the University of San Francisco.

Brenda Hillman is the author of ten collections of poetry, including Practical Water, Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire, and Extra Hidden Life, Among the Days, and has cotranslated At Your Feet by Ana Cristina Cesar. Hillman is the Filippi Professor of Poetry at St. Mary’s College of California.