Dr. Jolivette Anderson-Douoning aka Jolivette 'the poet warrior' is a Louisiana native who lives in Colchester, Vermont where she is a Professor in the Saint Michael's College History Department. She is a performance poet who uses her theater training when doing voice acting, dramatic readings, or reciting her original work to audiences. Dr. Jolivette recites the poems of literary artists of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement as a method for teaching history and Black culture. She has opened concerts and conducted workshops for youth and adults using poetry as a way to build stronger reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.

Sam Boudreau grew up in St.Albans, Vermont. He’s a Middlebury College alumni, holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Montana, and has taught undergraduate composition courses and poetry workshops. He frequently returns to the classroom to share his love of poetry with young people.

When writing, his work generally centers around queer intimacy, the environment, sociopolitical issues, and food. His poems can be found in miniskirt magazine and Scrawl Place (to name a few).

Sophia Cirignano is a poet, teacher, and papermaker from Vermont, based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. She completed an MA in Religious Studies at Concordia University in 2022, with research on queer appropriations of Christian imagery in contemporary art. She teaches Italian lessons remotely and is otherwise surrounded by paper: working at Westmount Library, making handmade paper at Atelier Retailles, and filling notebooks with poetry. Her poems are published in Headlight Anthology, Moist Poetry Journal, Ovunque Siamo and elsewhere.

Geof Hewitt writes and performs poems wherever he can find an audience. He has served as a Poetry Out Loud coach since the program started, and is happy to meet with individual classes or with larger groups. Geof uses guided, whole-group, cacophonic (!) choral recitations to ensure that everyone in the room has multiple opportunities to rehearse their chosen poems. The noise of multiple voices reciting different poems gives cover for every student to experiment with tone, pacing, facial expression, and gesture. Students are then invited to solo and receive brief suggestions from the group. Geof loves this work, and promises, "I'll make it fun!"

Diana Whitney writes across genres with a focus on feminism, motherhood, and sexuality. She is the editor of the bestselling anthology You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves (2021), winner of the Claudia Lewis Award. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Kenyon Review, Glamour, and elsewhere, and she has received numerous grants for her writing, including from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Vermont Arts Council. Her first book, Wanting It, won the Rubery Book Award in poetry. She lives in Vermont with her family and works as an editor and writing coach.