Claire Millikin:  is the author of six books of poetry, including three finalists for the Maine Literary Award in Poetry.  Her most recent book is Ransom Street (2Leaf Press 2019).  She teaches at the University of Virginia and divides her time between Charlottesville and Owls Head, Maine.

Kendall Merriam:  was born and raised in Rockland, Maine.  His  graduate studies in military and maritime history were taken at the University of Maine at Orono and Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Conn.  He has written more than twenty books and plays.  On April 29, 2010, he was appointed Rockland, Maine’s Inaugural Poet Laureate.  He is also a cousin of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Mark Melnicove:  is a recipient of PEN’s New England Discovery Award and author of two ekphrastic poetry collections — Sometimes Times (Two Palms Press, 2017), with printmaker Terry Winters and GHOSTS (Cedar Grove House, 2018), with painter Abby Shahn.  He is co-author of Africa Is Not a Country (2001 Africana Book Award winner).

Rev. Joe McKenna:  is a retired priest from Rumford, Maine who now lives in Portland.  He is from a poetic family.  His father, from Prince Edward Island, wrote poetry even as a boy.  Both his parents could recite reams of Longfellow’s poems.