GRACE CAVALIERI was Maryland's tenth Poet Laureate (2018-2024.) Her new poetry book: Owning The Not So Distant World won the Blue Light Book Award, (2024) and The Long Game: Poems Selected & New was published in 2023. She founded and still produces The Poet and the Poem for public radio, now from the Library of Congress, celebrating 48 years on-air in 2025. Grace was formerly Asst Director for Children's Programming, Corporate PBS., and senior media officer, NEH. Among honors, She holds the Bordighera Award, two Allen Ginsberg Awards and the CPB Silver Medal. She's an Academy of American Poets Fellow.

GEOFFREY HIMES's poetry has been published by Best American Poetry, December, Redactions, Gianthology, the Loch Raven Review, Pendemics, Survision, Innisfree, Salt Lick, Cathexis Northwest, Gargoyle and other publications. His poems are included in several anthologies, including Baltimorology, Singing in the Dark, and Speaking for Everyone. His song lyrics have been set to music by Si Kahn, Walter Egan, Sonia, Billy Kemp, Fred Koller and others. He has written about popular music, film, theater and books for the Washington Post, New York Times, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian Magazine, Paste, Downbeat, Sing Out, No Depression and many others since 1977. His book on Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA, was published in 2005. His book on Emmylou Harris and Rosanne Cash, In-Law Country, was published in 2024.