Kwame Dawes is author of eighteen collections of poetry; two novels; several anthologies; and plays. He has won a Pushcart Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Emmy Award. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he is a Chancellor's Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner.

Jon Pineda is the author of the novel Apology, winner of the 2013 Milkweed National Fiction Prize. His memoir, Sleep in Me, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. His poetry collections include The Translator's Diary and Birthmark. He teaches creative writing at the University of Mary Washington.

Ray McManus is the author of three books of poetry: Punch., Red Dirt Jesus, and Driving through the country before you are born. His poetry has appeared in many journals. He is an associate professor of English in the Division of Arts and Letters at the University of South Carolina Sumter.

Marjory Wentworth’s books of poetry include New and Selected Poems, Noticing Eden, Despite Gravity, and The Endless Repetition of an Ordinary Miracle. She is the co-writer of Taking a Stand, The Evolution of Human Rights. She is the poet laureate of South Carolina.

Charlene Spearen is an assistant professor and vice president of academic affairs at Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina. A poet and educator, she is in the process of creating the Langston Hughes Poetry Center at Allen University, a library that will have at its core poetry collections by authors of color.