Photo Credit: Los Jackson

Douglas Kearney's Patter (Red Hen Press, 2014) was a finalist for the California Book Award in Poetry. THE BLACK AUTOMATON (Fence Books, 2009) was a National Poetry Series selection. Most recently he is the author of SOMEONE TOOK THEY TONGUES (Subito Press, 2016, and MESS AND MESS AND (Noemi Press, 2015). He has received a Whiting Writer's Award and residencies/fellowships including Cave Canem and The Rauschenberg Foundation. Two of his operas, Sucktion and Crescent City, have received grants from the MAP Fund. Sucktion has been produced internationally. Crescent City premiered in Los Angeles in 2012. His work has appeared in Poetry, NOCTURNES, Iowa Review, Boston Review, What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America, Best American Poetry, and Best American Experimental Writing. Raised in Altadena, CA, he lives with his family in Santa Clarita. He teaches at CalArts, where he received his MFA in Writing.

Paolo Javier is the former Queens Poet Laureate (2010-14) and author of four full-length collections of poetry, including Court of the Dragon (Nightboat Books 2015), which Publisher’s Weekly called “a linguistic time machine.” His collaboration with electronic artist Listening Center (aka David Mason) will appear as a limited edition book/cassette, Ur'lyeh/Aklopolis, published by Texte und Töne in spring 2016.