Aaron Smith won the 1994 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize for Blue on Blue Ground (U. of Pgh. Press). He is the author of What's Required, winner of the 2003 Frank O'Hara Award. Poems have appeared in Bloom, 5 AM, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner

David Ebenback is the winner of the GLCA award in fiction for his book Between Camelots. He has also published short fiction in numerous literary magazines, including Denver Quarterly, Beloit Fiction Journal, and Crazyhorse.

Richard St. John is the Executive Director of Autumn House Press. His book of poems, The Pure Inconstancy of Grace, was published by Truman State Press in 2005.

Terry Tempest Williams is an author, naturalist, and environmental activist. Her books include The Open Space of Democracy (The Orion Society, 2004); Leap (Pantheon, 2000); Refuge, An Unnatural History of Family and Place, (Vintage, 1992)

Mark Brazaitis is the author of An American Affair, winner of the 2004 George Garrett Prize for fiction, as well as The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala, winner of the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Award, and a novel, Steal My Heart.

Ted Kooser is a poet and essayist, a professor of English at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and most recently, the United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 - 2006.

Lidia Torres, a Puerto Rican poet, was born in New York City. A graduate of Hunter College and New York University, she received a poetry fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. She lives in New York City where she is currently working on a translation project.

Jay Carson teaches creative writing, literature, and rhetoric at Robert Morris University. His work has appeared in Paper Street, The Louisville Review, Mudfish, and Southern Indiana Review.

Ruth Hendricks is a poet, photographer, and filmmaker. Her film, Quart Jar Poet, featuring the poet Dorothy Holley, premiered in 2005. Her work has been anthologized in After the Bell: Contemporary American Prose about School (U. of Iowa Press)

Rafael Torch’s work has appeared in the Indiana Review and Crab Orchard Review. He has taught at the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, Antioch College, and the Latino Youth Alternative High School in Chicago.