Lewis MacAdams is the author of a dozen books, tapes and CDs of poetry. His selected poems, Dear Oxygen, was published in 2012 by the University of New Orleans Press. His Birth of the Cool was named one of the best books of 2004 by the Los Angeles Times. From 1975 through 1978 he was the Director of the Poetry Center at San Francisco State. As a filmmaker and videographer he co-produced and co-directed dozens of literary videos and films including the documentary “What Happened To Kerouac?” In 2009 and 2010 he was a regular commentator on the National Public Radio show, “Day to Day”. In 1985, he created “Friends of the Los Angeles River,”  a forty year art work to bring the River back to life.

Laura Sims is the author of three books of poetry: My god is this a man, Stranger, and Practice, Restraint (Fence Books); her fourth collection, Staying Alive, is forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Presse in 2016. She edited Fare Forward: Letters from David Markson, a book of her correspondence with the celebrated experimental novelist (powerHouse Books), and has also published five chapbooks of poetry. Her work was included in the anthology, The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century, and individual poems have recently appeared in: Black Clock, Colorado Review, Talisman, and Denver Quarterly. Sims has been a featured writer for the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog, and has been a co-editor of Instance Press since 2009. She teaches literature and creative writing at NYU-SCPS and lives with her family in Brooklyn.