Charles Bernstein was born in Manhattan in 1950. He has published 27 collections of poetry including With Strings, Republics of Reality: Poems 1975-1984 and Controlling Interests. His essays are included in My Way: Speeches and Poems and Content's Dream: Essays 1975-1984. Bernstein is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ron Silliman has written and edited 24 books of poetry and criticism to date, including the anthology In the American Tree. He lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two sons, and works as a market analyst in the computer industry. Since 1979, Silliman has been writing a poem entitled The Alphabet. Volumes published thus far from that project have included ABC, Demo to Ink, Jones, Lit, Manifest, N/O, Paradise, ®, Toner, What and Xing.