M. L. Williams is the author of the chapbook _Other Medicines_ and coeditor of How Much Earth: The Fresno Poets, along with many anthology and journal publications. He co-emcees the Poetry Corner for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and teaches creative writing and contemporary literature at Valdosta State University in Georgia.

Michael Rothenberg is editor of BigBridge.org and co-founder of 100 Thousand Poets for Change. His most recent books of poetry include Drawing The Shade (Dos Madres Press, 2016) and Wake Up and Dream (MadHat Press, 2017). A bi-lingual edition of Indefinite Detention: A Dog Story is due out from Varasek Ediciones, Madrid, Spain in Fall 2017. (Michael will be joined by Brian Hall on bass and Mason Margut on piano; Blue Tavern regulars know these two musicians from the Bakan-Margut-Hall world music trio.)

Yolanda J. Franklin’s debut collection of poetry Blood Vinyls is forthcoming Spring 2018. She is a Cave Canem and Callaloo Fellow, and is also the recipient of a 2016-17 McKnight Dissertation Fellowship and a Kingsbury Award at Florida State University (2013). Franklin is also a Visiting Assistant Professor at Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University. Franklin’s poems appear in the current issue or are forthcoming in the following journals: Hayden’s Ferry Review, Southern Humanities Review. Franklin is a third generation Floridian, born in Tallahassee. She loves dancing to old school hip-hop, baking, food tasting.