Martin Espada has published nearly twenty books as poet, editor, essayist, and translator. His most recent collection of poems is Vivas to Those Who Have Failed. Other collections of poems include The Trouble Ball, The Republic of Poetry, and Alabanza. Among his many honors is the Shelley Memorial Award. He is professor of English at University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Lauren Marie Schmidt is the author of three collections of poetry: Two Black Eyes and a Patch of Hair Missing, The Voodoo Doll Parade, and Psalms of the Dining Room. Her poems have appeared widely, including in North American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Nimrod. Her fourth collection, Filthy Labors, is forthcoming in 2017 from Northwestern University Press.

J. D. Schraffenberger is the editor of the North American Review and the NAR Press. He is the author of two books of poetry, Saint Joe's Passion and The Waxen Poor, and the editor, most recently, of Manifold Nature: John Burroughs and the North American Review. His other work has appeared in Best Creative Nonfiction, RHINO, Brevity, Prairie Schooner, Hayden's Ferry Review, and elsewhere.