Jan Beatty’s eighth book, Dragstripping, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, 2024. Her memoir, American Bastard, won the Red Hen Nonfiction Award. Recent books include The Body Wars and Jackknife: New and Selected Poems, which won the Paterson Prize. Beatty worked as a waitress, abortion counselor, and in maximum security prisons. She is Professor Emerita at Carlow University, where she directed creative writing, Madwomen in the Attic workshops, and the MFA program. www.janbeatty.com.
Suzanne Cleary is the author of five full-length poetry books, including The Odds (New York Quarterly Books 2025), chosen by Jan Beatty as winner of the 2024 Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award. Twice a recipient of a Pushcart Prize, her other awards include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Yaddo, MacDowell, and the Cecil Hemley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America. Her poems appear in anthologies including Best American Poetry and in journals including The Atlantic, Southern Review, Manhattan Review, and Poetry London. She is Core Faculty in the MFA in Creative Writing Program of Converse University. Her website is suzanneclearypoet.com.