Richard Blanco was born in Madrid in 1968, immigrating as an infant with his Cuban-exile family to the U.S. He was raised and educated in Miami, earning a B.S. in civil engineering and a M.F.A. in creative writing from Florida International University. In 2013, Blanco was chosen to serve as the fifth inaugural poet of the United States, following in the footsteps as such great writers as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. Blanco performed One Today, an original poem he wrote for the occasion, becoming the youngest, first Latino, immigrant and openly gay writer to hold the honor. Following the inauguration, he continued connecting communities through occasional poetry. He has written and performed occasional poems for such organizations as Freedom to Marry, the Tech Awards and the Fragrance Awards. In May of 2013, Blanco wrote Boston Strong, a poem he performed at the Boston Garden Benefit Concert and at a Red Sox game at Fenway. Following his performances, he released a limited edition Boston Strong chapbook, with all proceeds going to those most affected by the Boston Marathon bombings. His books, in order of publication, are: City of a Hundred Fires (1998), Directions to the Beach of the Dead (2005), Looking for the Gulf Motel (2012), One Today (2013), Boston Strong (2013), and For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey (2013). Blanco has received numerous honors for his writings and performances, including an honorary doctorate from Macalester College and being named a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. His first book, City of a Hundred Fires received the prestigious Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize. His second book, Directions to the Beach of the Dead won the PEN / American Beyond Margins Award. His third book, Looking for The Gulf Motel received various accolades, including the Tom Gunn Award, the Maine Literary Award and the Paterson Prize. His poems have appeared in countless literary journals and anthologies, including Best American Prose Poems and Ploughshares. Blanco has been a practicing engineer, writer and poet since 1991. He has traveled extensively in his adult life, living and working throughout Europe and South America. He has taught at Georgetown University, American University, Writer’s Center and Central Connecticut State University. Blanco currently lives and writes in the tranquil mountains of Bethel, Maine.

Dorothy Allison is an American writer, speaker, and member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Themes in Allison's work include class struggle, child and sexual abuse, women, lesbianism, feminism, and family. Allison's first novel, the semi-autobiographical Bastard Out of Carolina, was published in 1992 and was one of five finalists for the 1992 National Book Award. Allison founded The Independent Spirit Award in 1998, a prize given annually to an individual whose work within the small press and independent bookstore circuit has helped sustain that enterprise.

Miriam Bird Greenberg is the author of In the Volcano's Mouth, winner of the 2015 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press, and of two previous chapbooks—All night in the new country (Sixteen Rivers) and Pact-Blood, Fevergrass (Ricochet Editions). She has been recognized with fellowships from the NEA, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and the Poetry Foundation. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where for many years she collaboratively developed site-specific performances for very small audiences. She's currently working on an ethnographically derived poetry project about economic migrants and asylum seekers living in and around Hong Kong's Chungking Mansions.

I am a poet, editor, and educator. I have a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah, an MFA in Poetry from Florida State University, a BA in French and an MA in Teaching from Bennington College. I've published three chapbooks, Scent of Shatter (Grey Book Press 2010), Bad Wife Spankings, winner of the 2010 Gertrude Press Chapbook Contest, and Nostrums (Unthinkable Creatures Press 2013). I’m the editor of Adrienne: A Poetry Journal of Queer Women. My first full-length collection, Mysterious Acts by My People was published in March 2014 by Sibling Rivalry Press, and won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry. My second book, Call Me by My Other Name, will be published by SRP in March 2016. I have quite varied literary tastes, my favorites being poetry (obviously), literary fiction, and YA lit, especially books with LGBT protagonists and/or dystopian and supernatural themes. When I’m not reading and writing, enjoy camping, playing with my French Bulldog and two cats, knitting, and traveling.

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