Moderator: Kevin Prufer’s ninth book of poetry is The Fears (Copper Canyon, 2023). His first novel, Sleepaway, will be published by Acre Books in 2024. He is professor of English in the creative writing program at the University of Houston and also teaches in the Lesley University low-residency MFA program.

Niki Herd is the author of the chapbook don’t you weep, and two poetry collections: The Language of Shedding Skin and The Stuff of Hollywood, which is forthcoming. Herd coedited Laura Hershey: On the Life & Work of an American Master. She lives in St. Louis and teaches at Washington University.

Michael C. Peterson serves as curator of the Elliston Poetry Room and archive at the University of Cincinnati. He’s a poet, the recipient of fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell, and Vermont Studio Center, and is an editor of Tom Postell: On the Life and Work of an Unsung Master (Pleiades, 2024).

Kazim Ali’s most recent books are Sukun: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan) and the novel Indian Winter (Coach House). He is a professor of literary arts and chair of the Department of Literature at the University of California, San Diego. He is the founding editor of Nightboat Books.

Dana Levin’s fifth book is Now Do You Know Where You Are, a 2022 NYT Notable Book. She is coeditor of a book on poet Bert Meyers for the Unsung Masters Series (Pleiades 2023). A Whiting and Guggenheim Fellow, Levin serves as Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Maryville University in Saint Louis.