Richard Foerster was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of German immigrants, and holds degrees in English Literature from Fordham College and the University of Virginia. He is the author of six poetry collections: Sudden Harbor (1992), Patterns of Descent (1993), Trillium (1998), Double Going (2002), The Burning of Troy (2006), and Penetralia (2011). His numerous honors include the “Discovery”/The Nation Award, Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize, a Maine Arts Commission Fellowship, the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship, and two National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowships. Since the 1970s his work has appeared widely in magazines and anthologies, including The Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, TriQuarterly, Gettysburg Review, Boulevard, Southern Review, and Poetry. He has worked as a lexicographer, educational writer, typesetter, teacher, and as the editor of the literary magazines Chelsea and Chautauqua Literary Journal. For the last 28 years he has lived on the coast of Southern Maine.
Although no corner of the planet inspires her as much as (her hometown) New York City, artist Orianne Cosentino travels the world creating art that specifically reflects the time and the place she has experienced. Through subtle details; the unusual color of the sky, an unexpected reflection, the viewer is guided into the work and brought a little closer to the heart of the subject/location. Since graduating the School of Visual Arts in 1999, Orianne has shown her paintings and drawing in New York and Paris. She currently lives and paints in Brooklyn and uses surrounding neighborhoods as inspiration in an ongoing series entitled QUOTA which collages discarded NYC parking tickets into local city scapes. The bright orange tickets lend a pop of color as well as the surprise element of this jarring urban icon. See more at ocosentino.com
Lo Kwa Mei-en is the author of Yearling, which won the 2013 Kundiman Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from Alice James Books. Her poems have appeared in Black Warrior Review, Boston Review, Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, The Kenyon Review, West Branch, and other journals.
Sara Michas-Martin, former Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, lives in Denver and has taught creative writing and interdisciplinary studies widely. Her book Gray Matter, published by Fordham University Press, received the 2013 Poets Out Loud Prize. Other awards include scholarships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Bread Loaf, Napa Valley and Squaw Valley Community of Writers conferences. Individual works have appeared in the American Poetry Review, The Believer, Best New Poets, Denver Quarterly, Field, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, jubilat, Threepenny Review and elsewhere. Please visit saramichas-martin.com for more information.
Janie Elizabeth Miller's poetry explores the environmental imagination and its relationship to activism. She teaches poetry & environmental writing at the University of Washington Tacoma. Her work can be found in Written River: A Journal of Eco-Poetics, Tupelo Press 30/30 online, and Cimarron Review, and she is founder & editor of the forthcoming online space, Ground Swell Anthologies.
Melissa Range’s first book of poems, Horse and Rider (Texas Tech University Press, 2010), won the 2010 Walt McDonald Prize in Poetry. Her poems have appeared in 32 Poems, The Hudson Review, Image, New England Review, The Paris Review, and other journals. She is the recipient of fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Originally from East Tennessee, she is finishing up her PhD in English at the University of Missouri.
Meredith Stern obtained a BFA in Ceramics at Tulane University in New Orleans. She went on to develop a multifaceted practice that includes printmaking, ‘zine publishing and socially engaged creative production. Meredith is a member of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative and has collaborated on several large scale art installations at Space 1026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; UWM Union Art Gallery at The University of Wisconsin at Madison; The Miller Gallery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as part of the Pittsburgh Biennial; and in Ljubliana, Slovenia as part of the 29th Graphic Arts Biennial. Her work is part of the permanent collection of Book Arts at the MOMA, The Library Of Congress, and in Universities and Libraries around North America. She recently organized a project called “This is an Emergency!” which combines visual art, narrative, and social justice. Her work can be found at meredithstern.org and at justseeds.org.