Catherine Barnett is the author of three collections, "Human Hours," which was the winner of the 2018 Believer Book Award in Poetry, a New York Times “Best Poetry of 2018” selection, and a finalist for the T.S. Eliot Four Quartets Prize; "The Game of Boxes," which received the James Laughlin Award; and "Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced," winner of the Beatrice Hawley Award. Her other honors include a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2022 Arts and Letters Award in Literature. She teaches graduate and undergraduate students in the Creative Writing Program at NYU, is a Distinguished Lecturer at Hunter College, and lives in New York City.

Stephen T. Johnson is a nationally decorated artist and author of many popular children’s books that have been recognized with a Caldecott Honor, two New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year Awards, and Gold and Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators (NYC). His original artwork has been exhibited in museum and galleries across the US and are in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery (Washington D.C.), the New Britain Museum of Art (CT), and the Spencer Museum of Art (KS). His public art can be found at the Lenexa City Center Library (KS), Love Field Airport (TX) and the LA Metro in Los Angeles (CA).