Martín Espada

Martín Espada has published more than twenty books as a poet, editor, essayist, and translator. His new book of poems is called Jailbreak of Sparrows. His previous book, Floaters, won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2021. Other poetry collections include Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (2016), The Trouble Ball (2011), The Republic of Poetry (2006), Alabanza (2003) and Imagine the Angels of Bread (1996). He is the editor of What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (2019). Espada has received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Creeley Award, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the PEN/Revson Fellowship, a Letras Boricuas Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. The title poem of his collection Alabanza, about 9/11, has been widely anthologized and performed. His book of essays and poems, Zapata’s Disciple (1998), was banned in Tucson as part of the Mexican-American Studies Program outlawed by the state of Arizona. A former tenant lawyer with Su Clínica Legal in Greater Boston, Espada is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Kimberly Blaeser

Kimberly Blaeser, founding director of Indigenous Nations Poets and past Wisconsin Poet Laureate, is a multi-genre author. Her six poetry collections include Ancient Light, and Résister en dansant/Ikwe-niimi: Dancing Resistance. Her debut short fiction collection, Red Ants, is forthcoming in fall 2026. Blaeser’s honors include the 2025 Poets & Writers’ Writer for Writers Award, Hayden’s Ferry Review’s Indigenous Poets Prize, and Lifetime Achievement Award from Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. An enrolled member of White Earth Nation, Blaeser is an Anishinaabe activist and environmentalist, Professor Emerita at UW–Milwaukee, and MFA faculty member at Institute of American Indian Arts.

Jewel Rodgers

Jewel Rodgers is the 2025–2029 Nebraska State Poet, a 2025 Academy of American Poets Fellowship recipient, and a 2025 AIRIES Fellow. A three-time Omaha Entertainment and Arts Award nominee for Best Performance Poet and a three-time TEDx speaker, she has toured nationally for over a decade, performing in schools, festivals, conferences, and public spaces. Her work has appeared in projects such as 100 Years | 100 Women (Park Avenue Armory – NY) and as a finalist in the 2024 Blackberry Peach Poetry Slam. An interdisciplinary performer and spatial practitioner, Jewel merges poetry, storytelling, and placemaking to inspire communities across Nebraska and beyond.

Kelli Lage

Kelli Lage is a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominated poet, as well as a photographer. She holds her bachelor's degree in secondary English education and studied poetry during the summer 2023 session at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Lage is an assistant poetry editor at Bracken Magazine, High School Editor and Student Liaison for the Iowa Poetry Association, and author of poetry books, Early Cuts and I'm Glad We Did This.

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Lage's poems have been published in Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum, Common Ground Review, Mauldin House, Stanchion Zine, Welter Journal, and more.

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Her chapbook, Bandaged, is forthcoming with Querencia Press. Website: www.KelliLage.com.

Jennifer L. Knox

Jennifer is the author of five books of poems: Crushing It (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), Days of Shame & Failure (Bloof Books, 2018), The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway (Bloof Books, 2010), Drunk by Noon (Bloof Books, 2007), and A Gringo Like Me (Bloof Books, 2005). Known for their dark, imaginative humor, her poems have appeared in publications such as the New Yorker, the American Poetry Review, Granta, McSweeney’s, five times in the Best American Poetry series, and the 2022 Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses anthology. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post.

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From 2016-2017, she developed and curated the crowd-sourced poetry project, Iowa Bird of Mouth, which was supported by the Iowa Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Over 750 people from around the world contributed to the project. Currently, she is at work on MYCYOWA, a traveling art project designed to increase awareness of my coremediation.

Jennifer earned her MFA from New York University. Her honors include three Milwaukee Poetry Slam champion titles, and an Iowa Arts Council Fellowship for her crowdsourced poetry project, Iowa Bird of Mouth, and a grant from the American Rescue Plan and the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs for MYCYOWA, a traveling public art project about mycoremediation. 

Born in Lancaster, California—home to Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and the Space Shuttle, Jennifer lives in central Iowa where she teaches in an ongoing series of private creative writing classes online and is the proprietor of a tiny spice company called Saltlickers.

James Autry

We are honoring the work of James A. Autry as one of the founders of the original Poetry Festival. 

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Autry is a former Fortune 500 executive, who is also an author, poet and business coach. He lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with his wife, Sally, and their son, Ronald.  Additionally, he has two other sons, Jim and Rick, and two grandsons, Eric and Brian.

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Autry has authored 15 books. His most recent publication is also his first foray into children's literature. Everyday Virtues: Classic Tales to Read with Kids is his first father/son collaboration, co-authored by his son, Rick. Autry's previous publications include books on servant leadership, gratitude, and business poetry (among other topics). 

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Read more about Autry at jamesaautry.com.