Brian Spears is the Poetry Editor of The Rumpus and author of A Witness in Exile. He also teaches in the English Department of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and sells wine and beer at a local market under the name The Mighty Malt Master.

Cheryl Strayed is the author of the memoir Wild, the novel Torch, and Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of her Dear Sugar columns. Her essays have appeared in Best American Essays, the New York Times magazine, Vogue, and the Sun.

Roxane Gay is the author of three books: Ayiti, An Untamed State, and Bad Feminist. She has had work in Best American Short Stories 2012, Oxford American, Virginia Quarterly Review, and New York TImes Book Review. She is the co-editor of PANK and teaches at Eastern Illinois University.

Isaac Fitzgerald is co-owner of The Rumpus, a co-founder of Pen & Ink, and director of publicity at McSweeney’s.