Stephen Motika is the director and publisher of Nightboat Books, a leading publisher of innovative poetry and prose in North America. He has also worked at Simon & Schuster, The CUNY Graduate Center, Northwestern University, PEN America, and Poets House, where he served as Artistic Director. He is the author of the book of poems, Western Practice, and several chapbooks, including Private Archive and Arrival and At Mono. He is the editor of Tiresias: The Collected Poems of Leland Hickman and co-editor of Dear Kathleen: On the Occasion of Kathleen Fraser’s 80th Birthday. His articles and poems have appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, At Length, BOMB, the Brooklyn Review, the Constant Critic, Eleven Eleven, Maggy, The Poetry Project Newsletter, Poets & Writers, Poets.org, and Vanitas, among other publications. He lives in New York's Hudson Valley.

Nicole Sealey is the author of The Ferguson Report: An Erasure, winner of the 2024 OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry, and an excerpt from which was awarded the Forward Prize for Best Poem. She is also the author of Ordinary Beast, a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named, winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Prize. With the poet John Murilla, she edited Dear Yusef: Essays. Letters and Poems, for and about One Mr. Komunyakaa. Her honours include the Arts and the Hodder Fellowships from Princeton University, a Cullman Centre Fellowship from the New York Public Library, a Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy in Rome, the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from The American Poetry Review, the Poetry International Prize, and fellowships from CantoMundo, Cave Canem, the National Endowment from the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Joshua Rothes is a writer, publisher, and book designer. He is the founder and publisher of Sublunary Editions, an independent press that specializes in brief forms of literature; the co-publisher of Hanuman Editions, a publishing project aimed at bringing the global avant-garde into conversation; and the founder of Asterism Books, a distributor specializing in small publishers. He is the author of An Unspecific Dog (punctum books, 2017), Six Novellas (Sublunary Editions, 2021), The Art of the Great Dictators (A Contrived Press, 2018), and other miscellany. He is the editor of The Collected Works of Emanuel Carnevali, the co-editor of The Collected Works of Kathleen Tankersley Young, and the co-editor of The Collected Poems of Marguerite Young. He lives and works in Seattle, Washington.

Divya Victor is a Tamil American poet, essayist, and educator. She is the author of CURB (Nightboat Books), which won the 2022 PEN America Open Book Award and the 2022 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. It was also a finalist for the 2022 CLMP Firecracker Award (Poetry). Divya is also the author of KITH (Fence Books/ Book*hug); Scheingleichheit: Drei Essays (Merve Verlag, trans. Lena Schmidt), NATURAL SUBJECTS (Trembling Pillow), UNSUB (Insert Blanc), and THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR MOUTH (Les Figues). She has been an editor at Jacket2 (United States) and for Ethos Books (Singapore), Invisible Publishing (Canada), and Book*hug Press (Canada). Her work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Polish, and Czech. She is currently an Associate Professor of English and Writing at Michigan State University, where she is the Director of the Creative Writing Program.

Poet and writer Dr. Holly Pester is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex. She has worked in forms of experimental, critical and sound-based writing for nearly 20 years, working with BBC Radio, Women’s Art Library and Wellcome Collection. Pester's most recent publications include the poetry collection Comic Timing (2021) and a novel The Lodgers (2024). Both out with Granta in the UK, and Assembly Press in Canada. 

Randy Bottle is recognized and honoured as an Elder among local community leaders and agencies. He originates from the Blood Tribe First Nation and is from the Tall People Clan. After serving the Blood Tribe Band Council for 24 consecutive years, he has become a staple in the Calgary community.

Randy’s primary goal is to promote traditional spirituality through ceremony, storytelling, and sharing personal experiences. His primary work now focuses on urban aboriginal youth, helping them to better understand their identity and develop a better sense of belonging. As a fluent Blackfoot speaker, he plays a key role in preserving and passing on the language to urban aboriginal youth and the larger Blackfoot-speaking community.

Harley Crowshoe’s ancestry is Blackfoot and originates from the Piikani Nation Reserve in southern Alberta. 

Harley has extensive Aboriginal Policing experience with First Nations people in Alberta and British Columbia. Throughout his RCMP career he held supervisory positions as a Detachment Commander in “K” and “E” Divisions, as well as investigating serious crimes. After more than 20 years of service with the RCMP he retired at the rank of Staff Sgt. 

Harley had the opportunity to participate in a major project that developed and built Canada’s second diamond mine in the Northwest Territories. While employed by Diavik Diamond Mines he developed policies and programs for Site Security. 

Harley joined the Aboriginal Policing Directorate as the Regional Manager, responsible for Alberta and North West Territories. This provided him the opportunity to continue working closely with the First Nations communities in Alberta and NWT. 

Harley has worked for AHS for many years, first serving the AHS Wisdom Council as chair; then the AHS South Zone as the Indigenous Health Senior Advisor; the AHS South Sector as Indigenous Health Provincial Director; and now continues to support AHS health projects as an Indigenous Health Advisor. 

He is currently working parttime with Piikani Health Service as a Accreditation Coordinator. 

Harley is a board member sitting on the Windy Slopes Health Foundation and Fresh Start Recovery Centre and recently he has been appointed on the National Advisory Committee on Missing Children and Unmarked Graves. 

Harley is a recipient of the Order of Canada, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation, and a 25 year service award from Public Service Canada. Harley was presented a soapstone sculpture and sacred eagle feather in recognition of contributions to the First Nations people of Canada and was inducted as an Honorary Chief of the Piikani (Blackfoot) Nation - including traditional transfer of a sacred eagle headdress

David A. Robertson is a two-time Governor General's Literary Award winner and has won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the Writer's Union of Canada Freedom to Read award. He has received several other accolades for his work as a writer for children and adults, podcaster, public speaker, and social advocate. He was honoured with a Doctor of Letters by the University of Manitoba in 2023 for outstanding contributions to the arts and distinguished achievements. He is a member of Norway House Cree Nation and lives in Winnipeg.

Jordan Scott is a poet and children’s author. Scott is the author of three picture books with Holiday House / Neal Porter Books and two forthcoming titles with Random House Studio and Viking Kids. His debut children’s book, I Talk Like a River (illustrated by Sydney Smith), was a New York Times best Children’s Book of 2020 was translated into nineteen languages and was the recipient of the American Library Association’s Schneider Family Book Award, which honors authors for the artistic expression of the disability experience. I Talk Like a River also received numerous international awards and was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Prize for Young People’s Literature.  Scott is also the author of four books of poetry and the recipient of the Writers’ Trust Latner Poetry Prize, given to a mid-career poet in recognition of a remarkable body of work, and in anticipation of future contributions to Canadian poetry.