Mark Brazaitis is the author of a collection of stories, An American Affair, which was awarded the George Garrett Fiction Prize for Best Book of Short Stories, and was published in 2006 by Texas Review Press. An earlier book of short stories, The River of Lost Voices, received the Iowa Short Fiction Award. He has also published a novel, Steal My Heart, as well as stories, poems and essays in many fine journals, including Shenandoah, The Sun, Beloit Fiction Journal, The Notre Dame Review, and Poetry East. A past winner of an NEA Fellowship, he is the director of the creative writing program at West Virginia University.

Denise Duhamel's most recent book Two and Two (University of Pittsburgh, 2005) was the winner of Binghamton University's Milt Kessler Book Award.  Her other titles include Mille et un Sentiments (Firewheel, 2005), Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems (Pitt, 2001), The Star-Spangled Banner (Southern Illinois University Press, 1999), and Kinky (Orchises, 2007). She co-edited, with Maureen Seaton and David Trinidad, Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry (Soft Skull, 2007). Her poetry is at home in such diverse anthologies as Bum Rush the Page; Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café; and six editions of The Best American Poetry. Duhamel has read her work on NPR and as a featured poet on the PBS special "Fooling with Words," hosted by Bill Moyers. A recipient of an NEA Fellowship, she is an associate professor at Florida International University in Miami. 

Brian Henry is the author of seven books of poetry: Astronaut (Carnegie Mellon, 2000), American Incident (Salt, 2002), Graft (New Issues, 2003), Quarantine (Ahsahta, 2006), In the Unlikely Event of a Water (Equipage, 2007), The Stripping Point (Counterpath, 2007) and Lessness (Ahsahta, forthcoming). His translation of the Slovenian poet Tomaz Salamun’s book Woods and Chalices appeared from Harcourt in 2008. He has co-edited Verse since 1995, and he co-edited The Verse Book of Interviews (Verse Press, 2005). His criticism has appeared in numerous publications around the world, including The New York Times Book Review, Times Literary Supplement, Jacket, Boston Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review. In 2006 he was awarded the Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize. He currently teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Richmond in Virginia.

Sheri Reynolds’ novels include Bitterroot Landing (Berkeley Books), The Rapture of Canaan (an Oprah book club selection and New York Times bestseller), A Gracious Plenty (Three Rivers), and The Firefly Cloak (Three Rivers).  Her play, Orabelle’s Wheelbarrow, won the Women Playwrights’ Initiative playwriting competition for 2005 and was produced at the Orlando Repertory Theatre.  Her latest novel, Red DrumRunning on a Falling Tide, will be released this fall. An associate professor and the Ruth and Perry Morgan Chair of Southern Literature at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, she received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia in 2003 and received an Artist Grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts in playwriting in 2005. She lives in the town of Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

Nick Carbo is the author of three books of poems Andalusian Dawn (WordTech, 2004), Secret Asian Man (Tia Chucha, 2000), and El Grupo McDonalds (Tia Chucha, 1995). He has edited three anthologies of Filipino writing Pinoy Poetics (2004), Babaylan (2000), and Returning a Borrowed Tongue (1995). Among his awards are fellowships in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. His poems have appeared in Indiana Review, Poetry, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, and have been featured on National Public Radio's Morning Edition and the PBS show Heritage. He lives in Hollywood Beach, FL with his wife, the poet Denise Duhamel.

James Harms is the director of the West Virginia Writers’ Workshop and was founding director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at West Virginia University. His five full-length books of poetry include, most recently, After West (2008), Freeways and Aqueducts (2004) and Quarters (2001), all from Carnegie Mellon University Press. He has published poems, stories and essays in Poetry, The Kenyon Review, The AntiochReview, The Gettysburg Review, TriQuarterly, Shenandoah, Oxford American, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes for his poetry, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

John Hoppenthaler is the author of two books of poetry, Lives of Water (2003) and Anticipate the Coming Reservoir (2008), both from Carnegie Mellon University Press. He has published poems, essays and interviews in such distinguished journals as Ploughshares, The Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Chelsea and Arts & Letters. He is poetry editor of Kestrel, West Virginia’s leading literary journal, and an assistant professor of English at East Carolina University.

Renée K. Nicholson is a recent graduate of the MFA Program at West Virginia University.  Her work has appeared in Gettysburg Review, Paste, Mid American Review and other publications. She is the Assistant to the Director of the West Virginia Writers’ Workshop.

Jane Varley is the author of a memoir, Flood Stage and Rising, published in 2005 by the University of Nebraska Press.  She has published many poems and reviews of poetry and fiction in literary magazines, and her nonfiction writing recently won an individual artist grant from the Ohio Arts Council. She holds a Ph.D. in poetry and creative writing from the University of North Dakota, and she is an associate professor and coordinator of creative writing at Muskingum College in Ohio.