Joshua Beckman was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He is the author of five books, including Shake and two collaborations with Matthew Rohrer: Nice Hat. Thanks. and Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. He is an editor at Wave Books and has translated numerous works of poetry and prose, including Poker by Tomaz Salamun, which was a finalist for the PEN America Poetry in Translation Award. He is also the recipient of numerous other awards, including a NYFA fellowship and a Pushcart Prize. He lives in Seattle and New York.
Vivian Shipley is the Connecticut State University Distinguished Professor and the editor of Connecticut Review from Southern Connecticut State University. She has published five chapbooks and her seventh book of poems, Hardboot: Poems New & Old, (Southeastern Louisiana University Press, 2005) won the 2006 Paterson Prize for Sustained Literary Achievement and the 2006 Connecticut Press Club Prize for Best Creative Writing. She has won a vast number of prizes, and two of her poetry collections have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2007, she was inducted into the University of Kentucky Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. A new book of poetry, All of Your Message Have Been Erased, is forthcoming from Southeastern Louisiana University Press.
