Erika Ayón grew up in South Central, Los Angeles. She was selected as a 2009 PEN Emerging Voices Fellow and studies poetry through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program. She is currently working on a collection of poetry titled Orange Lady, the nickname a schoolmate gave her because as a child she assisted her father selling fruit in Los Angeles.

David Eadington, a Southern California native, has been writing and studying poetry since his teens. He holds a BA in English from Boston University and an MA in Comparative Literature from UCLA. He worked in the translation industry for over ten years, and also translates French poetry. His poems have appeared in Xelas Magazine and Check Other Magazine, and are forthcoming in the anthology The Poetry Mystique: Inside the Contemporary Poetry Workshop.

Dina Hardy earned degrees from Pratt Art Institute and the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Agni, Black Warrior Review, Margie, Phoebe and Portland Review. She was a finalist in Poets and Writers' New Voices contest in California in 2003, awarded first place in Southeast Review and Smartish Pace contests, published in Meridian's Best New Poets 2006 anthology, and earned a Maytag Fellowship from the University of Iowa and a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University.

Georgia Jones-Davis was born in Los Angeles and raised in New Mexico and California. She began writing and publishing poetry while a student at UCLA. Georgia took a twenty-year-hiatus from writing poems while she worked as a reporter, critic and book review editor at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and later Book Review. Her work has appeared in Sam Hamill's online Poets Against War, Voices From the Valley, Brevities, The Bicycle Review, Cherries for Chopin and The California Review. She has just completed her first chapbook, Blue Poodle.

Russell Salamon has been writing poetry since 1964 when he discovered the power of words while at college in Cleveland, Ohio. Author of Descent into Cleveland, a novel (1996), Woodsmoke and Green Tea, poems (2006), Ascent from Cleveland: Wild Heart Steel Phoenix, poems (2008). He lives in North Hollywood, CA.

Mike Sonksen, aka Mike the Poet, is widely acclaimed for his live performances, contributions to international publications and legendary city tours. Poet, journalist, historian, tour guide, and teacher, he is published in the L.A. Citybeat, O.C. Weekly, New Angeles, and L.A. Weekly, among others. He is the author of I AM ALIVE IN LOS ANGELES! Mike's Los Angeles city tours combine poetry and history and have been written up in many publications, including the New York Times.