Michael Northen is the editor of Wordgathering, A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature. With Sheila Black and Jennifer Bartlet, he co-edited Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability and is the past facilitator of the Inglis House Poetry Workshop for writers with disabilities.. As an educator for over 40 years, he has taught adults with physical disabilities, women on public assistance, prisoners, and rural and inner city children.

Sheila Black is the author of three poetry collections: Love/Iraq, House of Bone and, most recently, Wen Kroy, which won the 2011 Orphic Prize in Poetry from Dream Horse Press). She is also a co-editor with Jennifer Bartlett and Michael Northen of Beauty is a Verb: the New Poetry of Disability, published by Cinco Puntos Press and named a 2012 Notable Book for Adults by the American Library Association (ALA). She received a 2012 Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress for which she was selected by Philip Levine. She lives in San Antonio, Texas where she directs Gemini Ink, a literary arts center.