Lisa Allen holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from The Solstice Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program at Pine Manor College, where she was awarded a Michael Steinberg Fellowship for Creative Nonfiction. She is currently pursuing a post-graduate certificate in poetry, also at Solstice.

Randall Horton is the author of three collections of poetry and most recently, Hook: A Memoir. He is a member of the experimental performance group "Heroes Are Gang Leaders," and Associate Professor of English at the University of New Haven.

Jeanie Thompson directs the Alabama Writers' Forum and is poetry faculty at Spalding University low-res MFA Writing Program. Her five poetry collections include The Seasons Bear Us and The Myth of Water: Poems From the Life of Helen Keller. She was founding editor of Black Warrior Review at the University of Alabama.

Derrick Harriell is a poet and the author of Cotton, Ropes, and the forthcoming Stripper in Wonderland. He is an Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi, where he also works as acting director of the MFA program.