David Wagoner has published nineteen books of poems—most recently After the Point of No Return (Copper Canyon Press, 2012)—and ten novels, including The Escape Artist (1965), which Francis Ford Coppola made into a movie in 1982. Winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and many other honors, he was a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets for twenty-three years, edited Poetry Northwest from 1966 to 2002, and is professor emeritus of English at the University of Washington. He teaches in the low-residency MFA program of the Whidbey Island Writers Workshop.

R. T. Smith is writer-in-residence at Washington and Lee University, where he edits Shenandoah. The latest of his many books are Outlaw Style: Poems (University of Arkansas Press, 2007) and a collection of stories, The Calaboose Epistles (Iris Press, 2009). His work has been reprinted in such notable anthologies as Best American Poetry, Best American Short Stories, and the Pushcart Prize.

Brendan Galvin is the author of sixteen poetry collections, most recently Habitat: New and Selected Poems, 1965–2005 (2005), a finalist for the National Book Award; Ocean Effects (2007); and Whirl Is King (2008)—all from Louisiana State University Press. His translation of Sophocles’ Women of Trachis appeared in the Penn Greek Drama Series (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998).