Steven Karl is the author of Dork Swagger (Coconut Books) and Sister (Noemi Press). Recent poetry and non-fiction has appeared in Breaking The Lines (Flying Guillotine Press), Pinwheel, Jellyfish, Entropy, Real Pants, The Volta, Coldfront Magazine, and The First Time I Heard My Bloody Valentine. He lives in Miami with his wife, Hitomi, and their daughter, Emma. In August they will move to Tokyo. 

orn in Toronto, J. Mae Barizo is the author of The Cumulus Effect. A prize-winning poet, critic and performer, recent work appears in AGNI, Bookforum, Boston Review, Hyperallergic and Los Angeles Review of Books. She is the recipient of fellowships and awards from Bennington College, the New School, the Jerome Foundation and Poets House. Phillip Lopate wrote that Barizo's "exquisite poems display throughout a mastery of poetic form and a thoroughly professional command of surface and tone. It is clear we are in the hands of a highly cultivated, intelligent writer." A classically-trained musician and a champion of cross-genre work, J. Mae has performed sound/text collaborations with musicians from The National, Bon Iver, and the American String Quartet. As a musician she has performed with Mark Morris Dance Group, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Kanye West and Pharrell, among others. She lives in New York City.

Cynthia Manick is the author of Blue Hallelujahs forthcoming in June from Black Lawrence Press. She is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet with a MFA in Creative Writing from the New School. With fellowships from Cave Canem, The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences, the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, Hedgebrook, Poets House, and the Vermont Studio Center, she also serves as East Coast Editor of the independent press Jamii Publishing. A 2014 finalist for the New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, Manick’s work has appeared in African American Review, Callaloo, DMQ Review, Kweli Journal, Muzzle Magazine, Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora, Pedestal Magazine, PLUCK!, Spillway Magazine, Tidal Basin Review, and elsewhere. She currently curates Soul Sister Revue and resides in Brooklyn, New York. She can be found at http://www.cynthiamanick.com/.

Jason R. Jimenez lives and writes in California. He is the author of a novel, The Wolves (Publication Studio), and he tweets often @jimenezwrites. "A tour de force of pleasure and pain that will make you blush down to your core." Dodie Bellamy on The Wolves.