Internationally acclaimed poet Eavan Boland is the author of twelve volumes of poetry. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, the Atlantic, and American Poetry Review.

Boland is a regular reviewer for Irish Times, is on the board of the Irish Arts Council and a member of the Irish Academy of Letters. She has received the Lannan Award for Poetry and has recently published a volume of prose called Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time. Boland is a Professor of English at Stanford University.

Poet John Haines homesteaded in Alaska for more than twenty years, and has taught at Ohio University, George Washington University, and the University of Cincinnati. Haines is the recipient of many awards and honors, including two Guggenheim Fellowships, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Library of Congress. The author of more than ten collections of poetry, he has also published a book of essays entitled Fables and Distances: New and Selected Essays (1996), and a memoir, The Stars, The Snow, The Fire: Twenty-five Years in the Northern Wilderness (1989).

Denise Duhamel is the author of more than ten books and chapbooks of poetry, with subjects ranging from Barbie dolls, Inuit mythology, fairy tales, to pop songs. Her most recent book is The Star-Spangled Banner (winner of the Crab Orchard Poetry Prize, Southern Illinois University Press, 1999). Her other books and chapbooks of poetry include: Exquisite Politics (with Maureen Seaton, Tia Chucha Press, 1997), Kinky (Orchises Press, 1997), Girl Soldier (Garden Street Press, 1996), and How the Sky Fell. (Pearl Editions, 1996.)

Maureen Seaton's books of poetry include Furious Cooking (University of Iowa, 1996), winner of the Iowa Prize for poetry and the Lambda Book Award; The Sea among the Cupboards (New Rivers Press, 1992), winner of the Capricorn Award and The Society of Midland Authors Award; and Fear of Subways (Eighth Mountain, 1991), winner of the Eighth Mountain Prize.

Award winning African-American poet Sonia Sanchez is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry. She is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including the Lucretia Mott Award, the Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Excellence in the Humanities, a National Endowment for the Arts Award, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

She lectures both nationally and internationally on Black culture and literature, women's liberation, and peace and racial justice.

Li-Young Lee has written two books of poetry: The City in Which I Love You (BOA Editions, 1991) , and Rose (1986.) He has also written a memoir entitled The Winged Seed: A Remembrance (Simon and Schuster, 1995). His many honors include a National Endowment for the Arts, and a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.

Lee has studied and taught at a number of universities, including the University of Pittsburgh, the State University of New York at Brockport, Northwestern University, and the University of Iowa. He currently lives in Chicago with his family.