Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265. His works include the Vita Nuova, the Convivio, and the Divina Commedia. He died in exile in Ravena in 1321.

William Ayers is distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois— Chicago. His latest book is A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court.

Jeanne Marie Beaumont is the author of Placebo Effects, winner of the 1996 National Poetry Series Competition. She lives in New York City.

Bob Chase is president of the National Education Association, which represents 2.4 million public school teachers and support staff across the country.

Joshua Corey is a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

John D’Agata’s first collection, Halls of Fame, will be published in 2000.

Susan Daitch is the author of two novels, L.C. and The Colorist.

Gerardo Deniz was born in 1934 in Madrid and emigrated to Mexico City in 1942. He is the author of ten books of poems, two books of essays, and a collection of short stories.

Denise Duhamel’s books of poems include Smile!, Girl Soldier, and Kinky. She is also co-author of Exquisite Politics, a book of poems written with Maureen Seaton.

Edwin Frank is an editor at The New York Review of Books.

Paul Gediman is an editor at Publisher’s Weekly. He is currently writing a novel.

Michael Greenberg is a contributing editor of Boston Review. His work has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, the Threepenny Review, Bomb, and other publications.

Laura Hendrie is author of the Stygo, a collection of short stories, and Remember Me, a novel. She lives in New Mexico.

Benjamin Ivry’s first book of poems, Paradise for the Portuguese Queen, appeared in 1998. He has also written biographies of Poulenc, Rimbaud, and Ravel.

Edward J. McCaffery is the Maurice Jones Jr. professor of law at USC Law School and author of Taxing Women.

Peter McCarthy has written for the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Deborah Meier is the principal of a pilot Boston public school. She was a founder of Central Park East elementary and secondary schools, and author of The Power of Their Ideas.

W. S. Merwin’s most recent books are The River Sound and The Folding Cliffs. His translation of Dante’s Purgatorio will appear in April 2000.

Harryette Mullen teaches African-American literature and writing at UCLA. She is the author, most recently, of Muse & Drudge. Her Sleeping with the Dictionary is forthcoming.

Richard J. Murnane is Thompson professor of education and society at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is co-author of Teaching the New Basic Skills.

Gary B. Nash is professor of history at UCLA, former president of the Organization of American Historians, and director of the National Center for History in the Schools.

Linda Nathan is headmaster of Boston Arts Academy, a pilot high school in Boston public schools. She was co-founder of the Center for Collaborative Education—Metro Boston.

Julie Patton’s work is included in Moving Borders: Three Decades of Innovative Writing by Women. A selection of her poetry will appear in a forthcoming issue of The Hat.

Marjorie Perloff’s most recent books are Wittgenstein’s Ladderand Poetry On & Off the Page. She is Sadie Dernham Patek professor of humanities at Stanford University.

Scott Saul teaches US cultural history at Yale. He is writing a book called Freedom is and Freedom Ain’t: Hard Bop and the Movement of African-American Modernism, 1955-1965.

Maureen Seaton’s books include Fear of Subwaysand Furious Cooking.

Theodore Sizer is founder and chairman of the Coalition of Essential Schools.

Alan A. Stone is Toureff-Glueck professor of law and psychiatry at Harvard Law School.

Abigail Thernstrom is a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education and co- author of America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible.

Pauls Toutonghi received a National Foundation for the Advancement of Arts grant to work on his novel, Burnt Sugar Waltz. "Regeneration" is his first published story.

Mónica de la Torre is co-author of Appendices, Illustrations and Notes. She selected and translated the forthcoming Poems by Gerardo Deniz.

Dmitri Tymoczko is in the Ph.D. program in music composition at the University of California—Berkeley. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, Lingua Franca, and Transition.

Michael Tyrell’s poems have appeared in the Paris Review and Ploughshares.

Suzanne Wise’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Volt, Bellingham Review, 13th Moon, and elsewhere.

Andrew Zawacki is co-editor of Verse and reviews for the TLS. His poetry has appeared in Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, and The New Republic.