Catherine Pierce's most recent book is The Tornado Is the World; her new book, Danger Days, is forthcoming. Her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, New York Times, and elsewhere. A 2019 NEA Fellow and Pushcart Prize winner, she teaches at Mississippi State.

Kathy Fagan is the author of five books of poems, most recently Sycamore, a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts. Recipient of grants from the NEA, OAC, and Ingram Merrill, Fagan directs the MFA program at Ohio State and serves as series coeditor for the OSU Press/The Journal Wheeler Poetry Prizes.

Raena Shirali is the author of Gilt, winner of the 2018 Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award. Recipient of a Pushcart Prize, Gulf Coast Poetry Prize, and “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize, her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets, and The Nation.

Beth Ann Fennelly, poet laureate of Mississippi, teaches at the University of MS. Winner of a Pushcart, an NEA, a Fulbright, and a USA Artist Grant, she's published six books: three poetry, three prose. Her newest, Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs, was an AJC Best Book of 2017 and a Goodreads favorite.

Jake Skeets is Black Streak Wood, born for Water's Edge. He is Diné from the Navajo Nation. A graduate of the Low-Rez IAIA MFA program, he currently works at Diné College. He is one of the winners of the 2018 "Discovery"/Boston Review Poetry Prize.