Francine J. Harris is originally from Detroit and has recent work appearing in Rattle, Ploughshares, Hanging Loose, and Meridian. Her first collection, allegiance, was published in the spring of 2012 and reached the number one spot on the national poetry bestseller’s list within a month of publication. She is a Cave Canem and Callaloo fellow, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and received her MFA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she lives, teaches and writes.

Kate Schapira is the author of four full-length books of poetry, most recently The Soft Place (Horse Less Press, 2012), and seven chapbooks — Little Eva, the Insomniac from Mars is forthcoming from dancing girl press. She lives in Providence, where she teaches writing to college and elementary school students and co-runs the Publicly Complex Reading Series.