ML Liebler is an internationally known and widely published Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist and arts organizer. He is the author of 13 books including the award winning Wide Awake in Someone Else’s Dream. The Coyote Monk Poetry Band features Grammy winning Eminem producer and bassist Steve King, The Blue Room guitarist Charlie Palazzola , Frankie the K of Black Hat on the keys, and from The Dangerous Diane Band, The Ghost Band, and 54 Sound session, drummer Leonard Johnson.

Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of the bestselling novel Once Upon a River (July 2011, W.W. Norton) and a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow. She was a 2009 National Book Award finalist and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for her collection of stories, American Salvage. Campbell is also author of the novel Q Road and the story collection Women & Other Animals. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan with her husband and two donkeys.

Diane Seuss’s most recent collection of poems, Four-Legged Girl, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2015. Her second book, Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open (2010), won the Juniper Prize for Poetry. A poem that originally appeared in Blackbird received a Pushcart Prize in 2013, and Seuss’s poem Free Beer was selected by guest editor Terrance Hayes for the 2014 Best American Poetry anthology. Seuss is Writer in Residence at Kalamazoo College.

Mona Jean Cedar attended Julliard School for Theatrical Interpreting and the National Theater of the Deaf’s Actors’ Academy and currently lives Los Angeles. She composes poetry with American Sign Language and choreographs with foreign sign languages. She has competed at the 1996 Poetry Slams Nationals; interpreted at the 2003 Nationals Poetry Slams and represented the United States at the 2011 international slam in Paris, France. She is the recipient of the 2013 Spirit of the Slam award.

Matt Bell’s debut novel In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods was selected as a 2014 Michigan Notable Book and longlisted for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. He is also the author of two previous books, How They Were Found and Cataclysm Baby. He teaches creative writing at Northern Michigan University.

Mardi Jo Link is the author of a memoir, Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm, and the true crime books, When Evil Came to Good Hart and Isadore’s Secret. She is the recipient of the 2013 Booksellers Choice Award from the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association and two Michigan Notable Book Awards. She studied journalism at Michigan State University and creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte. She lives with her family in Traverse City, on The Big Valley, the small farm featured in her memoir.

Garret Potter is a touring performance poet, published author, and writing workshop facilitator. He is the current host of the Ann Arbor Poetry Slam, winner of numerous poetry slams across the country, and competitor in the 2012 and 2013 individual World Poetry Slams. His work has appeared in sixteen publications including Indeefeed, The Promethean, and GroundCover News.

Harry Dolan is the author of the mystery/suspense novels: Bad Things Happen (2009), Very Bad Men (2011), and The Last Dead Girl (2014). He graduated from Colgate University, where he majored in philosophy and studied fiction-writing with the novelist Frederick Busch. A native of Rome, New York, he now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.