Gregory Orfalea is a journalist, editor, and poet. He is the author of The Capital of Solitude, a book of poems. He is also the author of Arab Americans: A History, Messengers of the Lost Battalion: The Heroic 551 st , and Turning of the Tide at the Battle of the Bulge. He was director of the Center for Writing at Pitzer College, where he taught creative nonfiction and the short story.

Sharif S. Elmusa is a widely-published poet, editor, and an esteemed translator of Arabic poetry. His poetry collection Flawed Landscape: Poems 1987 – 2008 was published by Interlink to great acclaim.