Mary Rechner is the author of Nine Simple Patterns for Complicated Women. She directs the Writers in the Schools program for Literary Arts in Portland, Oregon.

Desmond Spann is on a mission to motivate and inspire positive changes in people’s lives while having a crapload of fun. Under the name DLUXTL (TL=The Light) he performs spoken word, plays keyboard with the Hip-Hop fusion band Speaker Minds, emcees (rap), and produces.

Aricka Foreman's work has appeared in Drunken Boat, Minnesota Review, Vinyl Poetry, the Bakery, the Poetry, and elsewhere. A Poetry MFA Candidate at Cornell University, she has received fellowships from Callaloo and Cave Canem. She is a Poetry Editor for Muzzle Magazine.

Monica Prince is an MFA candidate in poetry at Georgia College and State University where she writes performance poetry and creates choreopoems. She works with the Early College, Georgia College seventh graders, mentoring their undergraduate teachers to teach creative writing.

Janet Hurley is the co-founder of Asheville Writers in the Schools (AWITS) in Asheville, North Carolina, a freelance writer, and adjunct instructor in writing at Warren Wilson College. AWITS organizes a regional spoken word competition for youth each year, Asheville Wordslam.