Micki Meyers is the author of Trigger Finger and has received three Pushcart Prize nominations. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, and has taught poetry and literature at the University of Pittsburgh since 1994.

Gerald Locklin is the author of over 125 books, chapbooks,and broadsides of poetry, fiction, and criticism. His most recent books and chapbooks include Gerald Locklin: New and Selected Poems, and The Cezanne/Pissarro Poems.

Alicia Ostriker is author of twelve volumes of poetry, most recently The Mother/Child Papers, reprinted by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Her latest critical book is Dancing at the Devil’s Party: Essays on Poetry, Politics and the Erotic.

Miriam Levine’s book, The Dark Opens, was selected by Mark Doty as the winner of the 2007 Autumn House Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Ploughshares.

Terese Svoboda’s memoir Black Glasses Like Clark Kent was published by Graywolf Press in 2008. Her ten books include fiction: Tin God (U of Nebraska Press, 2006); poetry: Mere Mortals (U of Georgia), and translations.

Irina Reyn is the editor of Living on the Edge of the World: New Jersey Writers Take on the Garden State (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster). Her first novel What Happened to Anna K. was published by Touchstone in August 2008.

Michelle Stoner is the author of Flats and Riots, published by CustomWords in 2008. Her poems have also appeared in journals such as “The Collared Peccary,” “Encylcopedia Destructica,” and “Weave Magazine.” She is currently an MFA student of Poetry at Carlow University and lives in Pittsburgh.

Richard Russo’s novel, Empire Falls, won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He has written five other novels: Mohawk, The Risk Pool, Nobody's Fool, Straight Man, and Bridge of Sighs, as well as a short story collection, The Whore's Child.

Lori Wilson’s new book, House Where a Woman, was published by Autumn House Press. Poems have appeared in journals such as Southern Poetry Review and in the anthology, Along These Rivers, Poetry and Photography from Pittsburgh (Quadrant Publishing).

Jeffrey McDaniels’ latest book is The Endarkenment (U. of Pgh. Press). Other books include The Splinter Factory, The Forgiveness Parade, and Alibi School, all published by Manic D Press. He teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College.