William Reichard is the author of four collections of poetry: Sin Eater (2010); This Brightness: Poems (2007); How To: Poems (2004), which was a finalist for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets; and An Alchemy in the Bones: Poems (1999), which won a Minnesota Voices Prize.

Ted Kooser is one of the the most highly regarded poets in the US and served as the United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006.

Sherman Alexie Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, Sherman J. Alexie, Jr. grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA.

Elizabeth Alexander is a professor in the English and African American Studies Departments at Yale University.

Linda Hogan (Chickasaw), writer in residence for The Chickasaw Nation, is an internationally recognized public speaker and writer of poetry, fiction, and essays.