Becky Thompsonis a scholar, poet, activist, and author of poetry collectionsTo Speak in SaltandZero Is the Whole I Fall into at Night.

The Blueprint Collective is Lauren Muller, Shanti Bright, Gary Chandler, Ananda Esteva, Sean Lewis, Stephanie Rose, Shelly Smith, Shelly Teves, Ruben Antonio Villalobos, and Pamela Wilson.

Samiya Bashir is a poet, writer, librettist, and performer whose work has been widely published and viewed from Berlin to the United States. Formerly the June Jordan Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, she has served as Visiting Professor of Poetry for the Helen Zell Writers Program at the University of Michigan. Bashir lives in Harlem. Her fourth collection, I Hope this Helps, was released by Nightboat Books to wide acclaim in 2025. Her honors include the Rome Prize in Literature, the Pushcart Prize, Oregon's Arts & Culture Council Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature, plus numerous other awards, grants, fellowships, and residencies.

Hanif Abdurraqib, a New York Times bestselling author is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His work has been published widely in major venues including The FADER, Pitchfork, and The New Yorker. Abdurraqib's books have been finalists for or winners of the Eric Hoffer Book Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the Lenore Marshall Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. His most recent book is There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension. Hanif is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.