Bonnie Rose Marcus is the Director of the Readings & Workshops Program (East) and Writers Exchange at Poets & Writers, Inc. She is the author of The Luminosity, a book of poetry, and the recipient of the 2014 Louis Reyes Rivera Excellence Award for Educator Artists.

Naomi Ayala is the author of three books of poetry (Wild Animals on the Moon, This Side of Early, and Calling Home: Praise Songs and Incantations). A teacher and freelance writer/editor, she is also the award-winning translator of the poetry collection The Wind's Archeology into English.

Kamilah Aisha Moon is the author of She Has a Name, a finalist for the Lambda Award and the Audre Lorde Award. A Pushcart Prize winner, Moon was also selected as a PSA New American Poet. Widely published in journals and anthologies, Moon holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.

Regie Cabico is a former Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam Champion and he appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam and NPR's Snap Judgement. He took top prizes in three National Poetry Slams and coedited Flicker & Spark: An Anthology of Queer Spoken Word & Poetry.

Emily Rubin's debut novel is Stalina. Her fiction and essays have been published in the Red Rock Review, Confrontations, HAPPY, NY Observer, and Poets & Writers. She is a recipient of the Sarah Verdone Award and a Pushcart nominee. She is an MFA candidate at the Writer's Foundry.