Tony Hoagland’s books of poetry include Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty, What Narcissism Means to Me, Donkey Gospel, Sweet Ruin, and Rain, as well as a collection of essays about poetry, Real Sofistakashun. His awards include the O.B. Hardison Prize for Poetry and Teaching from the Folger Shakespeare Library, the 2008 Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers, as well as the Poetry Foundation’s 2005 Mark Twain Award. He currently teaches at the University of Houston and in Warren Wilson College's MFA program.

Jeffery Renard Allen is the author of five books of fiction and poetry, most recently the novel Song the Shank. He teaches in the Writing Program at the New School and in the Low-Residency MFA program at Fairleigh Dickinson University. His many honors include the Whiting Writers' Award.

Margaret Lazarus Dean is the recipient of an NEA grant and the author of The Time It Takes to Fall, a novel about the space shuttle Challenger. A book of creative nonfiction, Leaving Orbit, won the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize and was published in 2014.

Mark Doten’s first novel, The Infernal, about Bush administration officials in Hell, is forthcoming. His writing has appeared in Conjunctions, Guernica, the Believer, and New York magazine. He is senior editor at Soho Press.

Ander Monson is the author of six books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, most recently the forthcoming Letter to a Future Lover. He teaches at the University of Arizona and edits the magazine DIAGRAM, the website Essay Daily, and the New Michigan Press.