Lesle Lewis

Maria Luisa Arroyo Cruzado

María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado was born in Manati, Puerto Rico, and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. She received a BA from Colby College, an MA from Tufts University, and an MFA from Pine Manor College. Arroyo Cruzado writes poetry and prose that code-switch between English, Farsi, German, and Spanish—the cultural languages of her experiences. She is the author of Thought Here Would Cure Me of There (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2024); Landscapes: photos & poems (MultiCreative Wisdom, 2023); Resistencia: Resilience (Human Error Publishing, 2023), a collection of poems and essays; the chapbook Destierro Means More than Exile (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018); and Gathering Words/Recogiendo palabras (Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, 2008). Arroyo Cruzado has been awarded both a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship and New England Public Radio’s Arts and Humanities Award. She is also the recipient of an honorary degree from Smith College.  In 2014, Arroyo Cruzado was named the inaugural poet laureate of Springfield, Massachusetts. She is currently a Clark Fellow and is pursuing a PhD in comparative literature at SUNY Binghamton.

Kevin Carberry & Ellen Miller-Mack

Kevin & Ellen read from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass : the first 25 "cantos", in honor of its publication on 4July 1855. Walt Whitman is America’s world poet—a latter-day successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare. In Leaves of Grass (1855, 1891-2), he celebrated democracy, nature, love, and friendship. This monumental work chanted praises to the body as well as to the soul, and found beauty and reassurance even in death. Along with Emily Dickinson [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/emily-dickinson], Whitman is regarded as one of America’s most significant 19th-century poets and would influence later many poets, including Ezra Pound [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ezra-pound], William Carlos Williams [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-carlos-williams], Allen Ginsberg [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/allen-ginsberg], Simon Ortiz [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/simon-j-ortiz], C.K. Williams [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/c-k-williams], and Martín Espada [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/martin-espada]. from The Poetry Foundation

Lesle Lewis

Lesle Lewis is the author of six poetry collections:  Small Boat  (2003), Landscapes I & II (2006),  lie down too (2011), A Boot’s a Boot (2014),  Rainy Days on the Farm (2019), John’s Table (2026) and the chapbooks,  It’s Rothko in Winter or Belgium  (2012), and Hydrogen (2025).  A new book, Survival of the Fittest Pronoun, is due out this fall.  She graduated from the UMass MFA program in 1995 .   She lives in the New Hampshire woods.

Carol Edelstein

Carol Edelstein, with Robin Barber, co-founded Gallery of Readers Press. With Liz George, she edits Switch, a journal of micro fiction. She is the author of three books of poems, most recently Past Repair (Simian Press, 2021). Her poetry and fiction have been featured in numerous anthologies and literary magazines, including The Massachusetts Review, The Georgia Review, and Alaska Quarterly Review. Her collection titled 73 very short stories will appear in the fall.

Samantha Pious

Samantha Pious translates women's poetry, especially sapphic women's poetry. Her aim is to contribute to a canon—or canons—of our own. So far, she has translated the selected poems of Renée Vivien, Natalie Barney, and Judith Teixeira. Her translations of Teixeira have been shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award and for a Golden Crown Literary Award. She has also translated A Lover and His Lady: One Hundred Ballades, by Christine de Pizan, which is forthcoming with The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series through Iter Press. A volume of her original poems, Sappho Is Dead, is available through Headmistress Press.