BEN LERNER is the author of three full-length poetry collections, most recently
Mean Free Path (2010) and
Angle of Yaw (2006), which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Northern California Book Award. His sonnet sequence,
The Lichtenberg Figures (2004), won the Hayden Carruth Award, and was chosen by Library Journal as one of the year’s 12 best poetry books. His poetry has been included in the anthologies Best American Poetry, New Voices (2008), and 12×12: Conversations in Poetry and Poetics (2009). Born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, he earned a BA in political science and an MFA in creative writing from Brown University, and was a Fulbright scholar in Madrid. His acclaimed novel
Leaving the Atocha Station, draws on this experience abroad. Lerner is a member of the MFA Program faculty at Brooklyn College.
SAMPSON STARKWEATHER is is the author of five chapbooks, most recently
Like Clouds Never Render from O’clock Press. His city-destroying mechabook
The First Four Books of Sampson Starkweather is forthcoming from Birds, LLC in early 2013. He lives in Brooklyn and is a founding editor of Birds, LLC. He is the starting shooting guard for the Williamsburg Crunchers, the world’s most famous poetry basketball team.