Catherine Browder has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Missouri Arts Council.  Her books include the short story collection Secret Lives (Southern Methodist UP, 2003) and The Clay That Breathes: A Novella and Stories (Milkweed, 1993).  She teaches fiction writing at University of Missouri-Kansas City and her book reviews appear regularly in New Letters, where she serves as an advisory editor.

R.M. Kinder is the author of two collections of stories, A Near Perfect Gift (U of Michigan P, 2005) and Sweet Angel Band (Helicon Nine, 1991).  She is currently editor emeritus of Pleiades and reads for New Letters and BkMk Press.

Michael Pritchett is the winner of the 2009 Dana Award for a novel-in-progress.  He is the author of the novel The Melancholy Fate of Capt. Lewis (Unbridled Books, 2007) and of the award-winning collection of stories, The Venus Tree (U of Iowa P, 1988).   He teaches fiction writing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Walter Bargen is currently serving as the first poet laureate of Missouri. He was awarded an N.E.A. poetry fellowship in 1991, the Chester H. Jones Foundation poetry prize in 1997 and a William Rockhill Nelson Award in 2005.  He is the author of Days Like This Are Necessary:  New and Selected Poems (BkMk P, 2009), Theban Traffic (WorldTech Comm, 2008), Remedies for Vertigo (WordTech Comm, 2006), The Feast (BkMk P, 2004), and The Body of Water (Timberline P, 2003). 

Hadara Bar-Nadav’s book of poetry A Glass of Milk to Kiss Goodnight (Margie/Intuit House, 2007) won the Margie Book Prize.  She is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and is an editorial consultant for New Letters.  

Kevin Rabas is a recipient of the Langston Hughes award for poetry.  He is the author of two books of poetry, Bird’s Horn and Other Poems (Coal City Review P, 2007) and Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano (Woodley P, 2009).  He co-directs the creative writing program at Emporia State University and is co-editor of Flint Hills Review

Trish Reeves has received fellowships for her poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo and the Kansas Arts Commission. Her first collection, Returning the Question (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1988), received the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize. Her book of poems In the Knees of the Gods was published by BkMk Press in 2001. 

Conger Beasley Jr. is the author of Sundancers and River Demons: Essays on Landscape and Ritual, a collection of personal essays (U of Arkansas P, 1990) that won the Thorpe Menn Award in 1991.  His book We Are a People in This World: The Lakota Sioux and the Massacre at Wounded Knee, won the Western Writers of America Spur Award for the best contemporary nonfiction work published in 1995.  He is the author most recently of Messiah, The Life and Times of Francis Schlatter (Sunstone P, 2008), Channel Island National Park (First Printing, 2008), and Eyes Open in the Dark: 8 Essays (BkMk P, 1996).

Steve Paul is a writer and editor, critic and teacher.  His poems have appeared in The Kansas City Star and New Letters.  He also helps to coordinate the Hemingway Society’s international conference.  He currently lives in Kansas City and is a senior editor and writer for the Kansas City Star.