Gerald Stern’s most recent books are a collection of poems, In Beauty Bright (W. W. Norton, 2012), and a book of essays, Stealing History (Trinity University, 2012). This Time: New and Selected Poems (1998) won the National Book Award, and his numerous other honors include the Ruth Lilly Prize and the Wallace Stevens Award. Stern taught for many years at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and he served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2005–2011.

Dave Smith is the Elliott Coleman Professor of Poetry in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. His newest book of poems, Hawks on Wires, is forthcoming from LSU Press this fall. Along with Robert DeMott, he edited the essay anthology Afield: Writers on Bird Dogs (Skyhorse Press, 2010).