Serhiy Zhadan calls himself a “post-proletarian punk” and is the most popular writer of the post-independence generation in Ukraine. His work speaks to the disillusionment and ironies following the collapse of the Soviet Union. His readings fill large auditoriums and he performs with rock groups. Zhadan was born in the Luhansk Region and lives in Kharkiv. On March 1, 2014, he was beaten by pro-Russian protesters. His assault created an international reaction. Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps received a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Translation Fellowship to translate his work.

Frank Sherlock approaches the work of poet as conduit, and the writing process as collaborations of encounter. He is a founder of PACE (Poet Activist Community Extension), which enacts roving guerilla readings/performances in public space. Poems beyond the page have found their forms in installations/performances/exhibitions, including Refuse/Reuse: Language for the Common Landfill, Kensington Riots Project, Neighbor Ballads, and B.Franklin Basement Tapes. He is a 2013 Pew Fellow in the Arts for Literature, and the 2014-15 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.