Mitchell L. H. Douglas is the author of \blak\ \al-fə bet\, winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky/Editor's Choice Award, and Cooling Board: A Long-Playing Poem, an NAACP Image Award nominee. An Affrilachian Poets founder and Cave Canem fellow, he is an associate professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. 

David Flores is a photographer and filmmaker based in New York. His photography can be found on the covers of Poets & Writers, MIX magazine, and PLUCK. His films have screened at the Verbal Arts Centre of Northern Ireland and film festivals across the country.

Ellen Hagan is a writer, performer, and educator. Her latest collection Hemisphere is forthcoming this spring. She is also the author of Crowned. A proud Kentucky writer, she is a member of Affrilachian Poets and Conjure Woman and is co-founder of girlstory.

Monica A. Hand is the author of me and Nina. She has attended residencies at Poets House and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. A Cave Canem alum, she is currently a PhD candidate in poetry at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Parneshia Jones is the author of Vessel: Poems and recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award and the Aquarius Press Legacy Award. She currently holds positions as sales and subsidiary rights manager and poetry editor for Northwestern University Press.