is a poet and translator who holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature.  Born and raised in Israel, Heller lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with her husband and children. She is a lecturer in the Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts — Amherst.  Heller’s poetry collections, in Hebrew, include: Ha’isha Beme’il Sagol [The Woman in the Purple Coat]; Kan Gam Bakayitz Hageshem Yored [Here, Even in the Summer it Rains]; and Mehalekhet al Khut shel Mayim [Pacing on a Thread of Water].  Forthcoming this year is Anakim Al Pney Ha’aretz [Giants in the Earth], her translation from English to Hebrew of Ole Edvart Rolvaag’s Saga of the Prairie.

is a poet, novelist, essayist, and translator.  His recent books include the novel As a Friend; the book of poems Core Samples from the World; and Watchword, a translation of Pura López Colomé’s Villaurrutia Prize – winning poetry.  He is a Rockefeller Fellow and has received fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim, Whiting, and Howard Foundations.  Gander is the Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor of Literary Arts and Comparative Literature at Brown University.

has published 17 books as a poet, editor, and translator.  His collection of poems entitled The Republic of Poetry (Norton, 2006) received a Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.  A collection of essays, The Lover of a Subversive is Also a Subversive, was released by the University of Michigan last year; his next collection of poems, The Trouble Ball, is forthcoming from Norton this spring.  He has received numerous fellowships and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award.  Espada teaches at the University of Massachusetts — Amherst.

holds an MFA in poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts and an MA in professional writing.  She has previously published in The Café Review, as well as in Quiddity, Diner, The Dryland Fish, The Blue Fig Review, and Busenhalter, among other publications.  Demers’ award – winning chapbook, Epicenter, was published in 2007 by Blue Light Press.  A poetry teacher, Demers feels fortunate to have heard Agha Shahid Ali read in person at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.  She lives in Williston, Vermont with her brilliant husband and exceptional cat.