Matthew Shenoda is the author of Somewhere Else, winner of the American Book Award, Seasons of Lotus, Seasons of Bone, and Tahrir Suite. He is associate provost for Social Equity & Inclusion and professor of literary arts at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). matthewshenoda.com

Chris Abani's recent books are The Secret History of Las Vegas, The Face (a memoir), and Sanctificum. Honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN/Hemingway Award, an Edgar Prize, a Ford USA Artists Fellowship, and the PEN Beyond Margins Award. He is a professor of English at Northwestern University.

John Keene is the author or co-author of several books, including Annotations; Seismosis, with artist Christopher Stackhouse; and Counternarratives. He also is the translator of Brazilian author Hilda Hilst’s novel Letters from a Seducer. He teaches at Rutgers University-Newark.

Tjawangwa Dema is a poet, former chair of the Writers Association of Botswana, and an Honorary Fellow in Writing of the University of Iowa. A founding member of her country's spoken word movement, she produced a CD anthology of twelve Batswana poets and is coproducer of the Africa Writes Bristol festival.

Phillippayaa De Villiers