Taylor Mali is one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and one of the original poets to appear on the HBO series "Def Poetry Jam." A four-time National Poetry Slam champion, he is the founder of the Page Meets Stage reading series in New York City.

Mahogany L. Browne is a Cave Canem alumna, Poets House fellow, playwright, poet, and literary emcee. She is the publisher of Penmanship Books and poetry program director at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

Nikola Madzirov (poet, essayist, translator, editor) was born in a family of Balkan Wars refugees. His poetry has been translated into more than thirty languages. Books include Remnants of Another Age. Awards include a Hubert Burda European poetry award, a DJS in China prize, and a Miladinov Brothers award. 

Richard Blanco’s first book, City of a Hundred Fires, received the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. His second book, Directions to The Beach of the Dead won the PEN/Beyond Margins Award. His third collection, Looking for The Gulf Motel, won the Paterson Poetry Prize and Thom Gunn Award from the Publishing Triangle. He stands as the youngest, first Latino, and first openly gay person to serve as the Presidential inaugural poet.

Bao Phi is program director of the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. He has been a spoken word poet since the early '90s. He has performed in numerous venues all over the country, and as an arts administrator, strives to serve different communities of writers locally and nationally.