Richard Michelson’s most recent poetry collection is Sleeping as Fast as I Can (Slant Books, 2023). Previous collections include More Money than God (U of Pittsburgh Press), Battles and Lullabies (U of Illinois), Tap Dancing for the Relatives (U of Central Florida), and two fine-press collaborations, Masks, and Semblant with the artist Leonard Baskin’s Gehenna Press. Michelson has received a National Jewish Book Award, two Sydney Taylor Gold Medals from the Association of Jewish Libraries, and two Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowships. Michelson’s children’s books have been named among the 10 Best of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker. Michelson served two terms as Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts, where he hosts Northampton Poetry Radio and owns R. Michelson Galleries.

Pegi Deitz Shea, two-time winner of the CT Book Award, is the author of more than 500 works of poetry and prose, including The Weight of Kindling (Grayson Books, 2022). Pegi is a Ct State Teaching Artist and has taught Creative Writing at UConn, the Mark Twain House, and the Institute of Children’s Literature. She’s led workshops and presentations for all ages across the country. A photographer, Pegi has had several solo exhibits of her photographs alongside her poems and has had her work appear in numerous juried exhibits. Inaugural Poet Laureate of Vernon, CT, 2019-2021, she now serves as President of the CT Council of Poets Laureate. She directs Poetry Rocks, a series she founded in 2017.