Maria Mazziotti Gillan is an awardwinning poet and instructor whose volumes of poetry include Where I Come From, Things My Mother Told Me, and What We Pass On: Collected Poems 1980-2009. Her work has been appeared in a number of publications, including Boderlands, Prairie Schooner, Los Angeles Review, the Christian Science Monitor, and the New York Times. She is the director of the creative writing program at Binghampton University—State University of New York and the executive director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College. 

Jennifer Gillan is a professor of English and Media Studies at Bentley University. Her other books include Television & New Media: Must-Click TV, Understanding Reality TV, and Identity Lessons, coedited with Maria Mazziotti Gillan.