Carter, Pamela Hobart: - Born in Rhode Island, Pamela Hobart Carter grew up in Montreal. When she returned to the US, she graduated from high school a second time, earned two geology degrees (Bryn Mawr College and Indiana University), and became a teacher. Over more than three decades, Carter taught a variety of ages and subjects, from science pedagogy for a teaching program to art for middle school. When classrooms closed for Covid, she added make-a-poem-at-home lessons to her website: playwrightpam.wordpress.com. These days, she periodically collects poems from preschoolers via their dictation. Carter's plays have been produced in Seattle (her home), Montreal, and Fort Worth. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net (3x). She is a 2023 Yavanika Press mixed-genre winner for Behind the Scenes atthe Eternal Everyday, an e-chapbook of cut-ups, and a 2024 Yavanika Press mixed-genre winner for Only Connect, an e-chapbook of her ekphrastic poems in conversation with photographs by Londoner Robert M. L. Raynard. Some of her other publications include the poetry chapbooks Her Imaginary Museum (Kelsay Books) and Held Together with Tape and Glue (Finishing Line Press); twelve short books in easy-English for adults (written with Arleen Williams, No Talking Dogs Press); and dozens of poems and articles (in literary and teaching journals and in anthologies). Carter is also a visual artist, gym climber, hiker, skier, and mother.

Ayers, Lana Hechtman: - Cat mama, dog mama, sky-watcher, recovering caffeine-fiend, former New Yorker, Lana Hechtman Ayers writes in a room over the garage in coastal Oregon, where she lives on the unceded lands of the Yaqo'n people. She leads generative writing workshops, helps poets assemble their manuscripts, and manages three small presses where she's fostered over 130 books into the world. Her most recent poetry collection is The Autobiography of Rain (Fernwood Press 2024). Say hello online at https: //LanaAyers.com