Gil Fagiani’s poetry collections include: Rooks, Grandpa’s Wine, which has been translated into Italian by Paul D’Agostino, A Blanquito in El Barrio, Chianti in Connecticut, Serfs of Psychiatry, and Stone Walls. A social worker by profession, Gil worked for 12 years at a Bronx psychiatric hospital and directed a residential program for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics in Downtown Brooklyn for 21 years.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic Country Community College, and Editor of the Paterson Literary Review. She is the author of over a dozen works. Among her many honors, she received the 2008 American Book Award, and 2011 Barnes and Noble Writers For Writers Award. Her ther awards include the May Sarton Award, the Fearing Houghton Award, New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowships in Poetry, and the American Literary Translators Association Award through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2014, Maria was awarded the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature. She lives in New Jersey.

Maria Lisella is the author of the collection, Thieves in the Family (NYQ Books), and two chapbooks Amore on Hope Street and Two Naked Feet. She co-curates the Italian American Writers Association readings, is a charter member of brevitas and is the newest Queens Poet Laureate 2015-2018. She is an award-winning travel writer and editor who is currently USA TODAY's New York expert.