Heather Spears was born in Vancouver and educated at the Vancouver School of Art and the UBC. A visual artist known for her drawings of critically ill children (Drawn From the Fire: Children of the Intifada), she is also the author of many books of poetry. In 1989 she won the Governor General's Award for The Word for Sand (Wolsak and Wynn). She now lives in Denmark.

Mike Smith has been involved in the spoken word scene for some time. He represented Toronto twice at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. He describes his work as tending toward the absurd and the fantastical, or the political. He is a regular contributor to NOW magazine.

Carla Hartsfield is a poet and classically trained pianist. She has published three collections of poetry. The most recent book, Your Last Day On Earth (Brick Books) was long-listed for the ReLit Award. Recently her work has appeared in Prairie Fire, Rampike, and The Antigonish Review. Anthology publications include The New Canon (Vehicule Press) and Only the Sea Keeps: Poems of the Tsunami.