Diannely Antigua is a Dominican American poet and educator, born and raised in Massachusetts. She is the author of two poetry collections, Ugly Music (YesYes Books, 2019), and Good Monster (Copper Canyon Press, 2024). She received her MFA at NYU. Her poems can be found in Poem-a-Day, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Washington Square Review, and elsewhere. From 2022-2024, she was the 13th Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, NH. She currently teaches in the MFA Writing Program at the University of New Hampshire as the inaugural Nossrat Yassini Poet-in-Residence. She hosts the podcast Bread & Poetry which seeks to make poetry accessible to all in a way that nourishes the soul.

Mckendy Fils-Aimé is a Haitian-American poet and educator. He is a nine-time veteran and perennial semi-finalist of the National Poetry Slam, where has represented venues from Boston, MA, Worcester, MA, and Manchester, NH. Mckendy is a former artist in residence for MassLEAP as well as the Art Alliance of Northern New Hampshire. He is a Callaloo Creative Writing Fellow whose work has appeared in The Shore, Boxcar Poetry Review, The Journal, Callaloo, Acentos Review, and elsewhere.

Nathan McClain (he/him) is the author of two collections of poetry: Previously Owned (Four Way Books, 2022), longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, and Scale (Four Way Books, 2017). He is a recipient of fellowships from The Frost Place, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and is a Cave Canem fellow. He earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. His poems and prose have appeared in The Hopkins Review, Plume Poetry 10, Guesthouse, Poetry Northwest, and Zócalo Public Square, among others. He teaches at Hampshire College and serves as poetry editor of the Massachusetts Review.

Camille T. Dungy is the author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (Simon and Schuster: 2023) and four collections of poetry, most recently Trophic Cascade (Wesleyan University Press: 2017). Dungy’s interest in the intersections between literature, environmental action, history, and culture led her to edit Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (University of Georgia Press: 2009). Currently, she is the poetry editor for Orion magazine. Dungy’s work has appeared in over 40 anthologies plus dozens of print and online venues in the U.S. and abroad. She is a University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.

Born in the Gambia, Kweku Abimbola, winner of the 2024 Nossrat Yassini Poetry Prize for Saltwater Demands a Psalm (Graywolf Press, 2023), earned his MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. Saltwater Demands a Psalm, also received the First Book Award from the Academy of American Poets in 2022, as well as other honors. He has work published and forthcoming in Shade Literary Arts, 20.35 Africa, The Common, Obsidian, and elsewhere. He lives in Detroit and works as a teaching artist for the literary nonprofit Inside Out Literary Arts. He also lectures in English and Creative Writing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

New Hampshire Poet Laureate from October 2019 to March 2024, Alexandria Peary holds MFAs in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a PhD in English/Composition from the University of New Hampshire. Alexandria is the author of nine books, including five books of poetry, the most recent of which is Battle of Silicon Valley at Daybreak (2022). Her poetry has appeared in the Yale Review, Gettysburg Review, New American Writing, Painted Bride Quarterly, Barrow Street, Denver Quarterly, New England Review, Bombay Gin, and the North American Review. 

Winner of the 2024 Granite State Poetry Prize for his manuscript Sky. Pond. Mouth., Kevin McLellan is also the author of: in other words you (2022 Hilary Tham Capital Collection winner); Ornitheology (Massachusetts Book Awards recipient); Tributary; and Round Trip. Kevin's book objects, Hemispheres and box, reside in special collections including the Blue Star Collection at Harvard University. Kevin's video Dick won Best Short Form Short at the LGBTQ Los Angeles Film Festival and it also appeared at the Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival, Berlin Short Film Festival, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival and others.

Daniel Brock Johnson is the author of Shadow Act: an Elegy for Journalist James Foley (McSweeney’s, 2023). Previously, Johnson published How to Catch a Falling Knife with Alice James Books. In 2019, the City of Boston commissioned Johnson to draft lines of poetry for the twin memorials commemorating the Boston Marathon bombings. Johnson’s poetry has been featured in outlets such as National Public Radio, PBS News Hour, The Washington Post, and in a variety of publications including Best American Poetry and Tin House. Johnson has received awards from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Poetry Center of Chicago, Foreword Book Awards, and elsewhere. Currently, he works as the executive director of Mass Poetry.

Dr. Ebele Okpokwasili-Johnson, a soprano for the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, is also a Child & Adolescent & Adult Psychiatrist and Medical Director of the Behavioral Health Department at Boston’s South End Community Health Center. Ebele attended Columbia University for college where she appeared in a number of plays and wrote and directed an original play titled The Quest. Ebele later attended the University of Illinois, where she earned her Medical Degree and Master’s of Public Health. Ebele has performed for eight years with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus including a U.S. premiere of James MacMillan’s “St. John Passion” with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ebele lives in the Boston area with Daniel and their two children.

Diane Foley founded the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation to advocate for freedom for innocent Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad and for journalist safety. Foley has raised awareness about international hostage taking through her government advocacy, the documentary, Jim: the James Foley Story, and opinion pieces in The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Dr. John W. Foley, and is the mother of four other children and seven grandchildren. Diane received her undergraduate and Masters in Nursing from UNH.