Emari DiGiorgio, Megan Fernandes, Nancy Reddy
Emari DiGiorgio is the author of Girl Torpedo (Agape, 2018), winner of the 2017 Numinous Orison, Luminous Origin Literary Award, and The Things a Body Might Become (Five Oaks Press, 2017). She is the recipient of the Auburn Witness Poetry Prize, the Ellen La Forge Memorial Poetry Prize, the Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize, RHINO’s Founder’s Prize, the Woodrow Hall Top Shelf Award, and a poetry fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. DiGiorgio has received residencies from the Vermont Studio Center, Sundress Academy of the Arts, and Rivendell Writers Colony. She teaches at Stockton University, is a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Poet, and hosts World Above, a monthly reading series in Atlantic City, NJ. Learn more at emaridigiorgio.com.
Megan Fernandes is the author of The Kingdom and After (Tightrope Books, 2015). Her work has been appeared or is forthcoming in Tin House, Ploughshares, Denver Quarterly, Boston Review, Rattle, The Adroit Journal, Pank Magazine, The Common, The Walrus Magazine, Postmodern Culture, Guernica, Memorious, the Academy of American Poets, Redivider, the California Journal of Poetics, among others. An Assistant Professor of English at Lafayette College, she holds a PhD in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MFA in poetry from Boston University. She lives in New York City. Learn more at meganfernandes.com.
Nancy Reddy is the author of Double Jinx (Milkweed Editions, 2015), a 2014 winner of the National Poetry Series, and the chapbook Acadiana (Black Lawrence Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 32 Poems, Blackbird, The Iowa Review, Smartish Pace, and elsewhere. The recipient of a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Sustainable Arts Foundation, she teaches writing at Stockton University in southern New Jersey. Learn more at nancyreddy.com.
Tai Allen is the author of No Jewels (Flowered Concrete, 2017). His poetry has appeared in Bomb, African Voices, and other publications. His music is available on iTunes, Bandcamp, Spotify, and other online destinations. Allen has performed music and poetry at venues including the Apollo Music Café, the National Black Writers Conference, the American Jazz Museum, the Art of Cool Festival, and The Nuyorican Poets Café, among others. 
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Nicole Callihan is the author of SuperLoop (Sock Monkey Press, 2014) and the chapbooks A Study in Spring (Rabbit Catastrophe Press, 2015), The Deeply Flawed Human (Deadly Chaps, 2016), and Downtown (Finishing Line Press, 2017). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Sixth Finch, Muzzle, Painted Bride Quarterly, The American Poetry Review, and as a Poem-a-Day selection from the Academy of American Poets. Callihan’s next project, Translucence, a dual-language, cross-culture collaboration with poet Samar Abdel Jaber, who writes in Arabic, will be published by Indolent Books in 2018. Find her on the web at 
Terence Degnan is the author of Still Something Rattles (Sock Monkey Press, 2016) and The Small Plot Beside the Ventriloquist’s Grave (Sock Monkey Press, 2012). His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance (Spuyten Duyvil, 2017), part of the Dispatches Editions series edited by Michael Boughn and Kent Johnson. Terence lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter. He’s on the web at 
Daniel Nester is the author of Shader: 99 Notes on Car Washes, Making Out in Church, Grief, and Other Unlearnable Subjects (99: The Press, 2015), How to Be Inappropriate (Soft Skull Press, 2009), God Save My Queen: A Tribute (Soft Skull Press, 2003) and God Save My Queen II: The Show Must Go On (Soft Skull Press, 2004). He is the editor of The Incredible Sestina Anthology (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012). His writing has appeared in the New York Times, American Poetry Review, Buzzfeed, and The Atlantic. Nester teaches writing at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. Find him on the web at 
Gbenga Adesina is the author of Painter of Water (Akashic Books, 2016), one of eight volumes included in Tatu, the 2016 edition of the New-Generation African Poets chapbook box set series, an African Poetry Book Fund project edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani. His poem “How To Paint A Girl” was selected by Mathew Zapruder for the New York Times Magazine in July 2016. His poems and interviews have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Washington Square Review, Brittle Paper, Vinyl, Ploughshares and elsewhere. A 2017 Emerging Poets Fellow at Poets House in New York City, he has received other fellowships and scholarships from the Norman Mailer Center, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop at Oxford University, and the 2015 poets’ residency on Goree Island Organized by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa. His manuscript Holy Bodies was a finalist for the 2017 Sillerman First Book Prize from the African Poetry Book Fund. Born in Nigeria, he is currently a Starworks Poetry Fellow in the MFA program at New York University.
Tyehimba Jess is the author of Leadbelly (Wave Books, 2005), winner of the 2004 National Poetry Series, and Olio (Wave Books, 2016) winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and The Midland Society Author’s Award in Poetry, among other honors. His fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Jess holds an MFA in creative writing (poetry) from NYU. He was a Cave Canem fellow and a Winter Fellow at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. He received a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as numerous other awards and honors. Jess is a Professor of English at College of Staten Island.
Lisa Andrews is the author of The Inside Room (Indolent Books, 2018) and Dear Liz (Indolent Books, 2016). Her poems have appeared in Gargoyle, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Zone 3. A graduate of Hunter College, Andrews received an MA in English Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU. Recipient of a New Voice Poetry Award from the Writers Voice of the West Side YMCA, Andrews has had residencies at Blue Mountain Center, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center, and studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, artist Tony Geiger.
Adam Giannelli is the author of Tremulous Hinge (University of Iowa Press, 2017), winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize, and the translator of a selection of prose poems by Marosa di Giorgio, Diadem (BOA Editions, 2012). His poems have appeared in the Kenyon Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, Yale Review, FIELD, and elsewhere. Giannelli is a doctoral candidate in literature and creative writing at the University of Utah.
Joseph O. Legaspi is the author of the poetry collections Threshold (Cavankerry, 2017) and Imago (Cavankerry, 2007), as well as the chapbooks Aviary, Bestiary (Organic Weapons, 2014), selected for the inaugural David Blair Memorial Chapbook Prize by Vievee Francis; and Subways (Thrush Press, 2013). His work has appeared in POETRY, New England Review, Best of the Net, Orion, and the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day. A Fulbright Scholar and New York Foundation for the Arsts (NYFA) Fellow, Legaspi co-founded Kundiman (
Richard Jeffrey Newman is the author of Words for What Those Men Have Done (Guernica Editions 2017), The Silence of Men (CavanKerry Press 2006), and For My Son, A Kind of Prayer (Ghostbird Press 2016), as well as three books of translation from classical Persian poetry, most recently The Teller of Tales: Stories from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (Junction Press 2011). Newman is on the executive board of Newtown Literary, a Queens, NY-based literary nonprofit and curates the First Tuesdays reading series in Jackson Heights, NY. He is Professor of English at Nassau Community College in Garden City.
Heather Derr-Smith is the author of Tongue Screw (Sparkwheel Press, 2016), The Bride Minaret (University of Akron Press, 2008), and Each End of the World (Main Street Rag Press, 2005). She received a BA from the University of Virginia and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Heather was born in Dallas and spent most of her childhood in Fredericksburg, Va.
James Diaz is the author of This Someone I Call Stranger (Indolent Books, 2018) and three full-length collaborative manuscripts with poet Elisabeth Horan. He is founding editor of the literary arts & music journal Anti-Heroin Chic. His work has appeared most recently in Psaltery & Lyre, The Ekphrastic Review, Quail Bell Magazine and Autumn Sky Poetry Daily (for which his poem, “The Balance Between Us,” was nominated for the Best of the Net.) In his steadfast commitment to providing a platform for radically underrepresented and marginalized voices, he will be publishing the diverse works of death row inmates from San Quentin in the coming months in collaboration with their liaison Nicola White, who manages Art of San Quentin. He currently resides in upstate New York.
Annabel Lee is the author of Minnesota Drift (Wry, forthcoming), Basket (Accent Editions, 2012), At the Heart of the World (O Press, 1979), and Continental 34s (Vehicle Editions, 1976). Her poetry, prose and essays have appeared in Live Mag, Have Your Chill, Dodgems, The Poetry Project Newsletter, Saturday Morning, Exquisite Corpse, and other publications. 
Ben Gantcher is the author of Snow Farmer (CW Books, 2017). His poems have appeared in Tin House, Slate and The Brooklyn Rail, among other journals. Gantcher teaches math and language structures at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lives with his wife, author and educator Melissa Kantor, and their three children.
Karen Hildebrand is the author of Crossing Pleasure Avenue (Indolent Books, 2018) as well as of the chapbook One Foot Out the Door, published by (Three Rooms Press, 2005). Recent poems have appeared What Rough Beast, Maintenant 11, and Boog City Reader, as well as in the anthology The Other Side of Violet. Her work has been adapted for a play, The Old In and Out, that was produced in 2013 by Three Rooms Press. She lives in Brooklyn and is chief content officer for Dance Magazine.
Susan Miller is the author of Communion of Saints (Paraclete Press, 2017). Her poems have appeared in Image, Iowa Review, Commonweal, and Sewanee Theological Review, among other journals. She has twice won prizes from The Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund. Miller teaches poetry and creative writing at Rutgers University and lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Chuck Carlise is the author of In One Version of the Story (New Issues Press 2016), as well as the chapbooks, A Broken Escalator Still Isn’t the Stairs (winner of the Concrete Wolf Poetry Series 2011) and Casual Insomniac (Bateau, winner of the Boom Chapbook Prize 2011). His poems and essays appear in numerous journals and anthologies, including Best New Poets in both 2012 and 2014. He is currently a Lecturer in writing, rhetoric, and cultural studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
David Eye is the author of Seed, released in 2017 from The Word Works, chosen by Eduardo C. Corral. He has been awarded scholarships to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the West Chester Poetry Conference, and was selected as a finalist for the 2015-16 Tennessee Williams Poetry Contest by Yusef Komunyakaa. Before earning an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University, he enjoyed a seventeen-year career in the theatre; before that, he spent four years in the military. This places him in an elite group of writer/professors who have served in both the U.S. Army—and the Broadway tour of Cats.
Martha Rhodes is the author of five poetry collections, most recently The Thin Wall from University of Pittsburgh Press. Her previous collections include At the Gate (Provincetown Arts press; 1st edition 1999), Perfect Disappearance (New Issues Poetry & Prose; 1st edition 2000), Mother Quite (University of Nebraska Press; First Edition edition 2004), and The Beds (Autumn House, 2012). She teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and at Sarah Lawrence College. She is the director of Four Way Books in NYC.
Robert Carr is the author of Amaranth (Indolent Books, 2016). Recent work appears in the Bellevue Literary Review, Kettle Blue Review, New Verse News, Radius Literary Magazine, Pretty Owl Poetry, and other publications. His poem “Censor Approaching” appears in the anthology If You Can Hear This: Poems in Protest of an American Inauguration (Sibling Rivalry, 2017). He lives with his husband Stephen in Malden, Massachusetts, and serves as Deputy Director for the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Learn more at 
t’ai freedom ford is the author of how to get over (Red Hen Press, 2017), winner of the 2015 To the Lighthouse Poetry Prize. She is a New York City high school English teacher and Cave Canem Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in Drunken Boat; Sinister Wisdom; No, Dear; The African American Review; Vinyl; Muzzle; Poetry, and other journals, as well as in several anthologies including The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (Haymarket Books, 2015), edited by Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Nate Marshall. In 2012 and 2013, she completed two multi-city tours as part of a queer women of color literary salon, 
Rickey Laurentiis is the author of Boy with Thorn (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), winner of the 2016 Levis Reading Prize, winner of the 2014 Cave Canem Poetry Prize (selected by Terrance Hayes), and a finalist for the 2017 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, named one of the top ten debuts of 2015 by Poets & Writers Magazine and one of the 16 best poetry books of 2015 by Buzzfeed, among other distinctions. His poems have appeared in the Boston Review, Feminist Studies, The Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, New Republic, The New York Times, and Poetry, as well as in the anthologies Extraordinary Rendition: American Writers Speak of Palestine (Olive Branch Press, 2016), edited by Ru Freeman; Bettering American Poetry 2015 (Bettering Books, 2017), edited by Kenzie Allen, Eunsong Kim, Amy King, and others; and Prospect.3: Notes for Now (Prestel, 2014), edited by Pieter Hugo, Pushpamala N., Claire Arni, and others. Rickey lives and teaches in New York.
Francisco-Luis White is the author of Found Them (CreateSpace, 2016). An Afro-Latinx and non-binary writer residing in the District of Columbia, they have a collection of poems forthcoming from Indolent Books. They have been featured in conversation for Winter Tangerine, with work forthcoming in Beltway Poetry Quarterly and Lambda Literary Review.
Sharon Mesmer is the author of Greetings From My Girlie Leisure Place (Bloof Books, 2015), voted “Best of 2015” by Entropy. Previous poetry collections are Annoying Diabetic Bitch (Combo Books, 2008), The Virgin Formica (Hanging Loose Press, 2008), Vertigo Seeks Affinities (Belladonna Books, 2007), and Half Angel, Half Lunch (Hard Press, 1998). Four of her poems appear in Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology (second edition, 2013). Her fiction collections are Ma Vie à Yonago (Hachette Littératures, Paris, in French translation, 2005), In Ordinary Time (Hanging Loose Press, 2005) and The Empty Quarter (Hanging Loose Press, 2000). Her essays, reviews and interviews have appeared in the New York Times, P
Elaine Sexton is the author of three books: Sleuth (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2003), Causeway (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2003), and Prospect/Refuge (Sheep Meadow, 2015). Her poems, art reviews, book reviews, and works in visual art have appeared in journals and anthologies, textbooks and websites including American Poetry Review, Art in America, Poetry, O! the Oprah Magazine, and Poetry Daily. An avid book maker and micro-publisher, she has curated many site-specific events with accompanying limited-edition chapbooks, among them Hair and 2 Horatio. She teaches text and image and poetry at Sarah Lawrence College, New York University and in private workshops. Formerly a senior editor at ARTnews, she serves as the visual arts editor for Tupelo Quarterly and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
Antoinette Brim is the author of These Women You Gave Me (Indolent Books, 2017), Icarus in Love (Main Street Rag, 2013), and Psalm of the Sunflower (Aquarius Press/Willow Books, 2010). She is a Cave Canem Foundation fellow, a recipient of the Walker Foundation Scholarship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and magazines as well as in the anthologies Villanelles (Everyman’s Library, 2012); Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander (FreedomSeed Press, 2013), Critical Insights: Alice Walker (Salem Press, 2012); 44 on 44: Forty-Four African American Writers on the 44th President of the United States (Third World Press, 2011); Not A Muse: The Inner Lives of Women (Haven Books, 2010); Just Like A Girl: A Manifesta! (GirlChild Press, 2008); and The Whiskey of our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience and Change Agent (Haymarket Books, 2017). Brim serves as the President of the Board of the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, Conn., and is an Assistant Professor of English at Capital Community College in Hartford, Conn.
Annie Christain is the author of Tall As You Are Tall Between Them (C&R Press, 2016). Her poems have appeared in Seneca Review, Oxford Poetry, The Chariton Review, and The Lifted Brow, among others. She received the grand prize of the 2013 Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Contest, the 2013 Greg Grummer Poetry Award, the 2015 Oakland School of the Arts Enizagam Poetry Award, and the 2015 Neil Shepard Prize in Poetry. Additional honors include her being selected for the Shanghai Swatch Art Peace Hotel Artist Residency and the Arctic Circle Autumn Art and Science Expedition Residency. She is an associate professor of composition and ESOL at SUNY Cobleskill.
Sarah Sarai is the author of Geographies of Soul and Taffeta (Indolent Books, 2016) and The Future Is Happy (BlazeVOX[books], 2009). Her poems are in many journals, including Barrow Street, Boston Review, and The Collagist. She is currently working her way through the novels of Shūsaku Endō and the oral histories of Svetlana Alexievich. When she was 23 years of age she was awarded a dozen donuts at Winchell’s. Sarah lives in Manhattan.