grew up in Brooklyn, New York, became a merchant seaman, and spent 1965 – 66 in Vietnam, after which he drove a taxi and tended bar until he opened The Tin Palace in 1970, the setting for his novel, The Tin Angel. A second novel, Redemption, followed in 1997; then a memoir, My Brother’s Madness, in 2007. He has also published 10 books of poetry, including Taxidancing, Last Call at the Tin Palace, Reflections in a Smoking Mirror, and Divine Madness.

was recently invited to read his poetry for the second time by the Library of Congress. He is the poet laureate of Maine. The poem in this issue, “Her Secret” will appear in his forthcoming collection, The Lost Child: Ozark Poems, due in the spring of 2015 from David Godine.

is the current Vermont Poet Laureate. He is the author of 10 poetry collections, most recently, I Was Thinking of Beauty (Four Way Books, 2013); a novel; and three collections of personal essays, most recently, A North Country Life: Tales of Woodsmen, Waters, and Wildlife (Skyhorse Publishing, 2013). He lives in Newbury, Vermont.

is the humanities poetry director of the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center where he has been coordinating a literary series since 1990. His poems have appeared in the Yearbook of American Poetry, Midwest Quarterly, Poet Lore, Mid –America Poetry Review, and numerous other publications. His book Looking For an Eye was published by Foothills Press. He is the editor of the Schuylkill Valley Journal.