Nan Cohen is the author of two poetry collections: Rope Bridge and Unfinished City. She lives in Los Angeles, where she is chair of English at Viewpoint School. A former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, she is Poetry Program Director of the Napa Valley Writers' Conference.

Ada Limón is the author of five books of poetry, including Bright Dead Things, which was named a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Poetry and a finalist of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award. Her new book The Carrying has been called "her best yet" by National Public Radio.

David St. John is the author of many collections of poetry, including The Last Troubadour: New & Selected Poems. He is chair of the Department of English and teaches in the PhD Program in Literature and Creative Writing at University of Southern California.

Major Jackson is the author of four collections, most recently, Roll Deep. A recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award, Pushcart Prize, and Guggenheim Fellowship, Jackson is the Richard A. Dennis Professor at University of Vermont. He serves as editor of the Harvard Review.

Matthew Zapruder is editor at large for Wave Books, and teaches poetry in the Saint Mary's College of California MFA. His most recent book of poems is Sun Bear. Why Poetry, is his book of prose.