Kirsten Dierking is the author of three books of poetry; Tether, Northern Oracle and One Red Eye. Her poems have been heard on The Writer’s Almanac and have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems, American Places and To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present. She is the recipient of a 2010 McKnight Artist Fellowship, a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant for literature, a Loft Literary Center Career Initiative Grant, a SASE/Jerome Grant, and a writing residency at the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts. Kirsten teaches humanities courses at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, and in 2011 received the NEA’s Excellence in the Academy Award for the Art of Teaching.

Ann Iverson is the author of Come Now to the Window (Laurel Poetry Collective), Definite Space (Holy Cow! Press), and Art Lessons (Holy Cow! Press). Her work has been published in a wide variety of venues, including Writer’s Almanac. Ann is a visual artist as well and feels blessed that both arts have found her heart. She is a graduate of both the MALS and MFA programs at Hamline University and is very thankful for those experiences and in great gratitude for both the Laurel Collective and Holy Cow! Press who granted permission for her work to be shared in the formality of beautiful books.

Janet Jerve a writer and a teacher. Her poems have appeared in many journals including Poetry East, Water-Stone Review, Lake Effect, Great River Review, and Emprise Review. Her poetry has also been included in a number of anthologies. Marilyn Hacker and Alberto Rios selected her as a finalist for the Loft-McKnight Award in poetry in 1989. Janet is an avid Nordic skier, loves to hike, and enjoys biking on Minnesota’s beautiful bicycle trails. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Rod. Excavation is her first book of poetry.

Kathleen Weihe lives with her husband, their dog, and two rescue birds in Minneapolis. She teaches composition at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, and has taught poetry classes at The Loft. She received a Loft-McKnight Award for poetry, an artist’s assistance fellowship from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and participated in the Loft’s Mentor Program. Kathleen received an M.F.A. from Hamline University. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals, including Water-Stone Review and Spoon River Review. She has two grown children, a son and daughter, whose offspring consist of several canines and a cat. Unless You Count Birds is her first book of poetry.