Matthew Johnson is a northern transplant (formerly of New Rochelle, NY, and Stratford, CT) living in NC and a MA graduate of UNC-Greensboro. A former sports journalist and editor who wrote for the The Carolinian, the USA Today College, and The Daily Star (Oneonta, NY), his poetry has appeared in Maudlin House, The Roanoke Review, the Maryland Literary Review, the South Florida Poetry Journal, the Front Porch Review, and elsewhere. He's a three-time Best of the Net Nominee and his debut collection, 'Shadow Folks and Soul Songs', (Kelsay Books) was released in 2019. His second poetry collection, 'Far from New York State,' was released in March 2023 by New York Quarterly Press.

Born in the Appalachian mountain town of Richlands, Virginia, Cathryn Hankla is professor emerita of English & creative writing, Hollins University, where she spent most of her academic career. She directed the Jackson Center for Creative Writing, twice chaired the English & Creative Writing Department, and has served as Poetry Editor of The Hollins Critic (since 1996). She was appointed Jackson Professor of Creative Writing 2012-2014. Hankla has published sixteen books in multiple genres, including IMMORTAL STUFF (prose poems), NOT XANADU (poetry), LOST PLACES: On Losing and Finding Home (a memoir in essays), GALAXIES (poetry), GREAT BEAR (poetry), FORTUNE TELLER MIRACLE FISH (stories), and A BLUE MOON IN POORWATER (novel). Her poetry ranges through forms, received and invented, including prose poems. Her writing has been awarded the James Boatwright III Poetry Prize, a PEN Syndicated Fiction Prize, a Virginia Commission for the Arts grant in poetry, and artist's fellowships here and abroad to Malta, Spain, and France.