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.

Linda Pastan’s fourteenth book of poems, Insomnia, will be published by W. W. Norton in the fall of 2015. Recent poems have appeared in the Paris Review, the Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker, and the Gettysburg Review. Her books have twice been finalists for the National Book Award, and in 2003 she won the Ruth Lily Prize for lifetime achievement. She was poet laureate of Maryland from 1991 to 1995.

Leon Stokesbury’s Autumn Rhythm: New and Selected Poems was awarded the Poet’s Prize from the University of Arkansas Press in 1997. He teaches in the creative writing program at Georgia State University and is completing his fourth collection, “I Never Minded Standing in the Rain,” which will include his poem in this issue.