Recent publications by Marilyn Nelson include "My Seneca Village" (namelos, 2015) and "How I Discovered Poetry" (Dial Press, 2014). Nelson won the 1992 Annisfield-Wolf Award and was a finalist for the 1991 National Book Award. Her other honors include the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award, a Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America, a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. From 2001 to 2006, she served as the Poet Laureate of Connecticut.

Her poetry has been praised by Arthur Sze "for its sheer range of voice and style, for its historical roots, and for its lyrical narratives that, replete with luminous details, unfold with an emotional force that, ultimately, becomes praise.” In 2013, Nelson was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and she is a professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut, Storrs.

Philemona Williamson is a narrative painter and art educator. She has been exhibiting her work for over 25 years at the June Kelly Gallery in NYC. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Pollock/Krasner, National Endowment for the Arts, and The New York Foundation for the Arts. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad, and is represented in numerous private and public collections. In 2007, her work "Seasons" was installed at the Livonia Ave subway station in Brooklyn.