Askold Melnyczuk is a highly distinguished Ukrainian-American novelist, short-story writer and poet as well as the Founder and Editor of the celebrated American journal Agni. He has published four novels which have variously been named a New York Times Notable, an LA Times Best Books of the Year, and an Editor's Choice by the American Library Association's Booklist. His work has appeared inThe Threepenny Review, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Times Literary Supplement (London), The Antioch Review, The American Poetry Review, The Missouri Review, Poetry, The Los Angeles Times, The Harvard Review and elsewhere. He has taught at Boston University, Harvard, Bennington College and currently teaches at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Chris Agee is a poet, essayist and editor. He is the author of Next to Nothing, shortlisted in Britain for the 2009 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, Blue Sandbar Moon and Trump Rant.