Michael McClure is a poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. As one of those who read at the legendary 6 Gallery reading, he is considered one of the movers and shakers of the Beat Generation. He is the author of numerous books, his most recent two being a selected poems called Of Indigo and Saffron, brilliantly edited by poet Leslie Scalapino, and a collection of poetry called Mysteriosos and Other Poems. He has collaborated with several artists and musicians including Terry Riley, their collaborative CD is I Like Your Eyes Liberty, and Ray Manzarek of The Doors, with whom a new CD is in the works, Live from San Francisco.

Jerome Rothenberg is an internationally known American poet, translator, editor, and anthologist who is noted for his work in ethnopeotics and poetry performance. He has published over seventy books of poetry, translation, and assemblage. He is the founder of Hawk’s Well Press and the magazines Poems from the Floating World and some/thing (the latter with David Antin.) He has taught at the State University of New York and University of California, San Diego. He recently published volume three of Poems for the Millennium, co-edited with Jeffrey C. Robinson as a nineteenth-century prequel to the first two volumes in the series.