Remica L. Bingham-Risher is a Cave Canem fellow and an Affrilachian Poet. She has published three books of poems, Conversion, What We Ask of Flesh, and Starlight & Error. She is Director of Quality Enhancement Plan Initiatives at Old Dominion University.

Ross Gay is the author of the poetry collections Against Which, Bringing the Shovel Down, and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude and the essay collection The Book of Delights. He teaches at Indiana University.

Carrie Fountain is the author of poetry collections Burn Lake and Instant Winner, as well as a novel, I'm Not Missing, and a forthcoming kids' book, The Poem Forest. She is writer-in-residence at St. Edward's and hosts NPR's poetry podcast This is Just to Say. She is the 2019 Texas poet laureate.

Gregory Pardlo's ​collection​ Digest won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He has received Guggenheim, NEA, and NYFA fellowships. He is the author of the essay collection Air Traffic, and teaches in the Rutgers-Camden MFA program.

Jon Pineda is the author of the novels Let's No One Get Hurt and Apology. His recent poetry collection Little Anodynes received the 2016 Library of Virginia Literary Award, and his memoir Sleep in Me was a 2010 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection.