Sherrie Flick is the author of Reconsidering Happiness (University of Nebraska Press). A recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship, her work has been published in places including Norton’s anthology Flash Fiction Forward.

Dorothy Holley is the author of four books of poetry: Dream Quartet, Late Day Thoughts, A Whole Quart Jar, and The Garden Journals, all published by FootHills Publishing. Her work was anthologized in Along These Rivers: Poetry and Photography of Pittsburgh.

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon is the author of Open Interval, the 2009 National Book Award Finalist, Poetry, and Black Swan, winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, both published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Kristin Naca’s book Bird Eating Bird won the 2008 National Poetry Series MTVU Prize, selected by Yusef Komunyakaa. A CFD Fellow at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, she teaches Asian American and Latino poetry.

Anita Gevaudan Byerly is the author of Steam Rising, published by MadBooks in 2009, and two chapbooks: October Light (Finishing Line Press, 2008) and Digging a Hole to China (2001). She was nominated for the 2004 Mary Roberts Rhinehart Award in Poetry.

John Hoerr is the author of Monongahela Dusk (Autumn House, 2009). He has also written three nonfiction books from his experience as a labor reporter.

Steven Murabito is the author of Lowering the Body, The Communion of Asiago, and The Oswego Fugues, all published by Star Cloud Press. He also wrote the chapbook, A Little Dinner Music (Parallel Press, 2004).

Jaimee Wriston Colbert is the author of two novels and two collections of stories, most recently, Shark Girls (Livingston Press, 2009) and Dream Lives of Butterflies (BkMk Press of the University of Missouri, 2007).

Afaa Michael Weaver’s book, The Plum Flower Dance (University of Pittsburgh Press) won the 2008 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence. He has published nine other books of poetry including My Father's Geography and Timber and Prayer.

James Allen Hall is the author of Now You’re the Enemy (University of Arkansas Press, 2008) and is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize. He teaches Creative Writing at the State University of New York Potsdam.