Poet and collagist Steve Dalachinsky (1946-2019) was born and grew up in Brooklyn. He was a quintessential autodidact, known for his involvement with free jazz. His books include The Final Nite Other Poems: Complete Notes from Charles Gayle Notebook, 1987-2007 (2007 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Book Award winner), Where Night and Day Become One: French Poems, A Superintendent's Eyes, and, with French photographer Jacques Biceglia, Reaching into the Unknown. He collaborated with many musicians on albums and performances in NYC, France, Germany, Austria, and Japan. He also curated shows at the Knitting Factory, was a music critic for The Brooklyn Rail, and sold records on the street. He lived most of his life in Manhattan.

Yuko Otomo is a visual artist and poet born in Nagasaki, Japan. She also translates and writes criticism and essays. Her art, which focuses on pure abstraction, has been shown at many galleries and her books include Anonymous Landscape, PINK, Garden: Selected Haiku, and STUDY, as well as a collaboration with Steve Dalachinsky, FROZEN HEATWAVE. She lives in Manhattan (SoHo).

Michael Ruby is a poet, editor, and journalist. He is the author of nine books of poems, most recently Sounds of Summer in the Country. He also is co-editor of Bernadette Mayer's Eating the Colors of a Lineup of Words and her collaboration with Lewis Warsh, Piece of Cake. He worked for many years as an editor of U.S. news and political articles at The Wall Street Journal and lives in Brooklyn (Park Slope).