Heid Erdrich directs a nonprofit endangered language organization. She is author of four poetry collections including Cell Traffic and National Monuments, which won the Minnesota Book Award.

Jason K. Friedman won the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction for Fire Year. His work appears in Best American Gay Fiction and Goth: Undead Subculture. He was runner-up in the AWP Award Series for the Novel and won the Moment-Karma Foundation Short Fiction Prize. He works as a technical writer.

Tina Kelley wrote for The New York Times for a decade, sharing in a Pulitzer for covering 9/11. She has written two books of poetry, The Gospel of Galore, a WA State Book Award winner, and Precise, and co-authored Almost Home: Helping Kids Move from Homelessness to Hope. She works for Covenant House.

Trevino L. Brings Plenty is a social worker. He is the author of Real Indian Junk Jewelry. His poetry has appeared in many journals and reviews and is included in the poetry anthologies Portland Lights and Shedding Skins: Four Sioux Poets. He is also a singer-songwriter and guitarist.