Martha Garner holds a Master's degree in Education from Lesley University. She edits the journal for the Louisiana Early Childhood Association, and has also served on the editorial board of the Southern Early Childhood Association. Martha is the Festival of Words Cultural Arts Collective Executive Director

Patrice Melnick is founder and board member of the Festival of Words Cultural Arts Collective. Melnick writes essays and poems in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. She has written two books: Po-boy Contraband and Turning Up the Volume.

Susan Weinstein is associate professor of English at Louisiana State University. Her books, The Room Is on Fire: The History, Practice, and Pedagogy of Youth Spoken Word Poetry and Feel These Words: Writing in the Lives of Urban Youth, explore teenagers' creative verbal composition and performance.

Donney Rose is a poet, teaching artist, and community activist. He is the marketing director and a teaching artist for the arts-based nonprofit Forward Arts, Inc. He is a 2018–2019 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow and a 2017 Baton Rouge Business Report Forty Under 40 recipient.

Toby Daspit is Associate Professor of Education and codirector of the National Writing Project of Acadiana. He is the author of two chapbooks, Anatomy of a Ghost and Other Poems Not About You, and Bar Coasters. Daspit founded the Improving the Blank Page writing project for at-risk youth.