Susanna Childress was born in California, spent her first decade in the Philippines where her parents taught at a seminary, and landedin southern Indiana for the remainder of her adolescence. She holds a Master’s from The University of Texas at Austin and a PhD from Florida State University. Her first book, Jagged with Love, was selected by Billy Collins for the Brittingham Prize in Poetry. Her second book, Entering the House of Awe, was recently released by New Issues Press. She has taught writing and literature at Valparaiso University and Hope College and has received an AWP Intro Journals Award, the National Career Award in Poetry from the National Society of Arts and Letters, and a Lilly post-doctoral fellowship. She lives in Holland, Michigan.

Carrie Fountain’s first book of poetry, Burn Lake was selected for the 2009 National Poetry Series by Natasha Trethewey Set in southern New Mexico, where her family's multi-cultural history is deeply rooted, these poems explore issues of progress, history, violence, sexuality, and the self. Burn Lake weaves together the experience of life in the rapidly changing American Southwest. 

Carrie Fountain is from Mesilla, NM. She was a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers, and received Swink Magazine's Award for Emerging Writers and the Marlboro Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in Cimarron Review, Black Warrior Review, 32 Poems, and more. She is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. She is married to the playwright Kirk Lynn, they have a young daughter Olive.