Coauthor of The Poetic Species, Edward O. Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist, and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Social Conquest of Earth and Anthill: A Novel, as well as the Pulitzer Prize–winning On Human Nature and (with Bert Hölldobler) The Ants. For his contributions in science and conservation, he received more than 100 awards from around the world.

Coauthor of The Poetic Species, Robert Hass has served as United States Poet Laureate and as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. He has published many books of poetry, including Time and Materials, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and What Light Can Do: Essays on Art, Imagination, and the Natural World, winner of the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award. Awarded the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the National Book Critics Circle Award (twice), and the Yale Younger Poets Prize, Hass is co-founder of River of Words, an environmental education program for children, and a professor of English at the University of California at Berkeley.