Alison Hawthorne Deming is the author of numerous works of nonfiction and poetry, most recently Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit and the collections of poems Stairway to Heaven and Death Valley: Painted Light. She is currently the Agnese Nelms Haury Chair of Environment and Social Justice and Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Arizona.

Sara Eliza Johnson is the author of Vapor and Bone Map, which was a winner of the 2013 National Poetry Series.

Lee Ann Roripaigh is the author of numerous collections of poems, including Dandarians and tsunami vs. the fukushima 50. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of South Dakota Review and directs the creative writing program at the University of South Dakota. She is currently the South Dakota Poet Laureate.

Larry Watson is the author of numerous novels, including Montana 1948, American Boy, As Good As Gone, and Let Him Go, which was adapted into a film by Focus Features and released in 2020. Born in Rugby, North Dakota, he grew up in Bismarck and is now Visiting Professor at Marquette University. He lives in Milwaukee.

William Souder is an award-winning journalist and is the author of three books, including Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Grant, Minnesota.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling collection of essays Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.

Amy Leach is the author of Things That Are. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and reviews, including A Public Space, Ecotone, Tin House, and Orion, in addition to Best American Essays and Best American Science and Nature Writing.

Rafael de Grenade is the author of Stilwater: Finding Wild Mercy in the Outback. She has traveled to many countries as a land steward and scientist, and her writing has been published widely in literary and scientific journals. She divides her time between the southwestern United States and Chile.

Jody Gladding is a poet and translator. She has published five full collections of poems: I entered without words, the spiders   my arms, Translations from Bark Beetle, Rooms and Their Airs, and Stone Crop.

David Rhodes (1946-2022) is the author of Painting Beyond Walls. As a young man, he worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa.