Albert Goldbarth is the author of more than twenty-five books of poetry, most recently Selfish (2015), Everyday People (2012), and The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems, 1972–2007 (2007), all from Graywolf Press. He has twice won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry.

Frederick Busch (1941–2006) was a prolific short-story writer and an award-winning novelist. Professor of literature at Colgate University from 1966 to 2003, he authored twenty-seven books and more than one hundred short stories and essays. His many honors include an American Academy of Arts and Letters award for fiction in 1986 and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction in 1991.