Jackson Taylor is the Associate Director of the Graduate Writing program. He holds a BA from Columbia and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. For three years he worked at The New York Times as a floater in many departments including The Week in Review, Culture, Arts and Leisure, the UN bureau, and the National and Metro desks. For more than fifteen years he has been the Director of The Prison Writing Program at PEN American Center where he has participated in many readings and radio broadcasts. He has read at Housing Works, Stain Bar, KGB and has written film, theater and restaurant reviews for Downtown Express and Time Out. His short fiction and poems have appeared in Sleeping Fish, LIT, Witness, and many "zine" publications which have four-letter titles including Spit, Pink, Moss and Punk. He teaches at The New School, Mediabistro, and The Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen. Recently, he completed his first novel "The Blue Orchard."

Sharon Mesmer is the author ofAnnoying Diabetic Bitch(poetry, Combo Books, forthcoming 2007) andThe Virgin Formica(poetry, Hanging Loose Press, forthcoming 2008). Previous poetry titles areVertigo Seeks Affinities(Belladonna Books, 2006) andHalf Angel, Half Lunch(Hard Press, 1998). Fiction collections areIn Ordinary TimeandThe Empty Quarter(Hanging Loose, 2005 and 2000) andMa Vie à Yonago(Hachette Littératures, France, 2005). She writes a seasonal column for the French magazinePurple Journal, music reviews forThe Brooklyn Railand is a two-time NYFA fellow in poetry.