B.J. BEST is the author But Our Princess Is in Another Castle, a book of prose poems inspired by classic video games. He is also the a
uthor of State Sonnets and Birds of Wisconsin, which won the Many Voices Project competition and was recognized as an Outstanding Achievement in Poetry by the Wisconsin Library Association. A fourth book, the novella-in-verse I got off the train at Ash Lake, is forthcoming in late 2013. Best has also published three chapbooks with Centennial Press, most recently Drag: Twenty Short Poems about Smoking. He holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and is an Assistant Professor of English at Carroll University, where he teaches courses in writing and video games. He has twice been a finalist to serve as Wisconsin’s poet laureate, and lives in the Wisconsin countryside with his wife, son, three cats, and nine video game systems. He asserts he is the only person in the history of the world to have beaten Super Mario Bros.—with an actual Nintendo and television—on a pontoon boat.
Sarah Busse, as she describes herself, is a flirt, a feminist, and a restless heart. She is also one of the current Poets Laureate of Madison, co-editor of the poetry magazine Verse Wisconsin, Cowfeather Press, and the 2013 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar. A contributing scholar to the Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline project, Busse is also the award-winning author of two chapbooks, Quiver and Given These Magics, and a full-length collection, Somewhere Piano.
Brenda Cárdenas crosses the borders with language and ideas as she blends English and Spanish in her poetry collections. Two of her works are Boomerang and From the Tongues of Brick and Stone. She also co-edited Between the Heart and the Land: Latina Poets in the Midwest. Cárdenas’ work has appeared in a range of publications, including the anthologies The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry, The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century, U. S. Latino Poetry Today, and Brute Neighbors: Urban Nature Poetry, Prose and Photography; the 2013 Wisconsin Poets Calendar; and journals such as Prairie Schooner, Achiote Seeds, RATTLE, Pilgrimage, Verse Wisconsin, and Cream City Review. She was the Poet Laureate from 2010-2012 and is currently an Associate Professor in the Creative Writing program at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee.
Madison scientist and poet Robin Chapman is the author of seven books and the recipient of Appalachia’s 2010 Poetry Prize. Her works include the award-winning Images of a 
Complex World: The Art and Poetry of Chaos, The Dreamer Who Counted the Dead, Abundance, and The Eel Grass Meadow. She has received two Posner Awards as well as grants from the Wisconsin Arts Board, and her poems have been set to music and incorporated into paintings. Chapman is Professor Emerita of Communicative Disorders at UW-Madison.
Ching-In Chen is the author of The Heart’s Traffic and co-editor of The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities and Here is a Pen: an anthology of West Coast Kudiman Poets. A Kundiman and Lambda Fellow, Ching-In is part of the Macondo and Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation writing communities, and has been a participant in Sharon Bridgforth’s Theatrical Jazz Institute. Past occupations include karaoke singer, flautist, 1st grade literacy teacher, community organizer, construction job counselor, and a severely lost person in the Rocky Mountains. Chen moved to Milwaukee to attend the PhD program in Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Addtional information can be found on her web site: www.chinginchen.com.
Cathryn Cofell is the author of Sister Satellite and six chapbooks, most recently Split Personality with Karla Huston. You might also catch her in a Midwest bar or coffee shop, performing poems set to the music of Obvious Dog, including tracks from Lip, their debut CD. Her work is frequently published and has garnered numerous awards including the John Lehman Poetry Prize, the Wisconsin Academy Best Poet Award and multiple Pushcart nominations. Cofell is a tireless advocate for the necessity of poetry, including efforts as the founder and current chair of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission; she has also helped to launch and grow, among others, the WI Fellowship of Poets, Verse Wisconsin, the Foot of the Lake Poetry Collective, the Fox Cities Book Festival, the WFOP Chapbook Prize and the Harmony Café Poetry Series. www.cathryncofell.com
Poet, educator, singer, songwriter, and producer Larry O. Dean is Poet-in-Residence in the Chicago Public Schools through the Poetry Center of Chicago’s Hands on Stanzas 
program. He also teaches literature and composition. As a young man he worked with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, published essays on popular culture in the alternative press, and also cartooned for fanzines and other underground outlets. He has released numerous critically-acclaimed albums, and, since 2001, has hosted a monthly songwriter showcase, Folk You! His most recent book, published in 2013, is Brief Nudity.