Patricia Smith is the author of six books of poetry, including Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and the Phillis Wheatley Award, and Blood Dazzler, a finalist for the National Book Award. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, The New York Times, TriQuarterly, Tin House, The Washington Post, and in both Best American Poetry and Best American Essays. Patricia is a professor at the College of Staten Island and an instructor in the MFA program at Sierra Nevada College.
Amber Tamblyn is the author of DARK SPARKLER, just released by Harper Perennial. She has been nominated for the Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit awards. She has published two previous books, FREE STALLION and BANG DITTO. Tamblyn’s work has appeared in Interview, Cosmopolitan, Poets & Writers, and elsewhere. She lives in New York with her husband, comedian David Cross.
Corrina Bain is a gender non-conforming writer, performer, and teaching artist. He is a former member and coach of multiple national-level poetry slam teams. His writing has appeared in anthologies and journals such as Muzzle Magazine, PANK, A Face to Meet the Faces, and the Everyman’s Library book Villanelles. Corrina’s work engages the nuances of the body as a source of identity, pleasure, betrayal, and shame and extends to encompass history, mythology, and politics. Currently, Corrina lives in Brooklyn where he practices roundhouse kicks, twerking, and emergency psychiatric counseling.
Nick Flynn is a poet and memoirist. He is the author of four books of poetry, including MY FEELINGS, THE CAPTAIN ASKS FOR A SHOW OF HANDS, SOME ETHER and BLIND HUBER. ; The Captain Asks For a Show of Hands (2011), Some Ether (2000), His memoir, ANOTHER BULLSHIT NIGHT IN SUCK CITY, won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir. It has been translated into fifteen languages and been made into a film. He has been awarded fellowships from The Guggenheim Foundation, The Library of Congress, The Amy Lowell Trust, and The Fine Arts Work Center. He worked as a “field poet” and as an artistic collaborator on the documentary film “Darwin’s Nightmare,” which won an Academy Award for best feature documentary in 2006.