Prize-winning poet Peter Balakian is the author of four books of poems, most recently Dyer's Thistle, and a book on Theodore Roethke. He is co-editor of the poetry journal Graham House Review and a professor of English at Colgate University.

Nevart Yaghlian was born in Jerusalem and has taught at Haigazian College in Beirut. She was the director of counseling in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University.