Martha Ronk is the author of eleven books of poetry, including Ocular Proof (Omnidawn), 2016, Transfer of Qualities (Omnidawn), long-listed for the National Poetry Award, Partially Kept, published by Nightboat Books, Vertigo, a National Poetry Series selection published by Coffee House Press, In a landscape of having to repeat, a PEN USA best poetry book published by Omnidawn Press, and Why/Why Not from UC Press. She has also published a quasi-memoir, Displeasures of the Table, from Green Integer, and a collection of stories, Glass Grapes and Other Stories, BOA Editions. She has had several residencies at Djerassi and MacDowell, is an NEA recipient, and is the Irma and Jay Price Emeritus Professor of English at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Brian Turner is a poet and memoirist who served seven years in the US Army. He is the author of two poetry collections, Phantom Noise and Here, Bullet, which won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award, the New York Times “Editor’s Choice” selection, the 2006 PEN Center USA “Best in the West” award, the 2007 Poets Prize, and others. Turner’s work has been published in National Geographic, The New York Times, Poetry Daily, Harper’s Magazine, and other fine journals. Turner has been awarded a United States Artists Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, and more. His recent memoir, My Life as a Foreign Country, has been called, “achingly, disturbingly, shockingly beautiful.”