Susan Settlemyre Williams, Blackbird book review editor and associate literary editor, holds an MFA in poetry from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her poems have been published in River City, Shenandoah, Barrow Street, The Cream City Review, DIAGRAM, storySouth, and other journals. She has also published book reviews, both in Review Revue and regularly in Blackbird. Her book-length manuscript Ashes in Midair has been a finalist in several recent competitions, and one of her poems was named the winner of the 2006 Diner poetry contest. She is retired from the practice of real estate law.   

Jake Adam York was raised in northeast Alabama, where his father was a steelworker, his mother a history teacher. Educated at Auburn University and Cornell University, he now teaches Creative Writing and Poetics at the University of Colorado at Denver. His work has appeared in The Southern Review, The Greensboro Review, Gulf Coast, Crab Orchard Review, and Shenandoah, as well as the website Poetry Daily. He serves as a contributing editor for Shenandoah and the poetry editor for storySouth. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His first collection, Murder Ballads, recently won the Elixir Press Judge's Prize, selected by Jane Satterfield.