Born in New Mexico of Indio-Mexican descent, Jimmy Santiago Baca was raised first by his grandmother and later sent to an orphanage. A runaway at age 13, it was after Baca was sentenced to five years in a maximum security prison that he began to turn his life around: he learned to read and write and unearthed a voracious passion for poetry. During a fateful conflict with another inmate, Jimmy was shaken by the voices of Neruda and Lorca, and made a choice that would alter his destiny. Instead of becoming a hardened criminal, he emerged from prison a writer. Baca sent three of his poems to Denise Levertov, the poetry editor of Mother Jones. The poems were published and became part of Immigrants in Our Own Land, published in 1979, the year he was released from prison. He earned his GED later that same year.  Baca has devoted his post-prison life to writing and teaching others who are overcoming hardship. His themes include American Southwest barrios, addiction, injustice, education, community, love and beyond. He has conducted hundreds of writing workshops in prisons, community centers, libraries, and universities throughout the country.

Lorenzo Baca, of Isleta Pueblo/Mescalero Apache descent, is a native of Arizona and was raised and educated in New Mexico and California. He received a Master of Arts in 1986 from UCLA in American Indian Studies. He is a visual, literary, and performing artist. As a member of S.A.G. he has appeared on television and feature films and does various work as a voice atrist including narration and voice overs. "Native America" is an educational/travel series that is produced, written, directed and hosted by lorenzo. He also hosts community events including Powows where he shares his stoytelling talents and great sense of humor. Lorenzo is a published poet and does reading nationally. As a visual artist he is continually exhibiting his visual works around the country. "As a visual, performing, and literary artist I draw on traditional forms with the use of modern technology to express contemporary concepts."

A citizen of the Southern Cherokee Nation of Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, and a life long resident of Ballplay, Alabama, Baggett's passion for literature is second only to a love for the traditions and future of the Cherokee people. Baggett is also an accomplished musician, songwriter, and craftsman.

Marie Annharte Baker lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the "roughest toughest" urban Indian capital of North America. She is a personal essay stylist and a poet whose work has been published in Semiotexte. Baker is working as an apprentice storyteller and hopes to form a storyteller theater. She is also working on a new book of poetry, Blueberry Canoe. Her interests include the writings of women of color , street poetry, and rap. Baker is the co-founder of the Regina Aboriginal Writers Group.

Winner of the 1996 First Book Awards for Poetry from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas for hid book Winter Count Poems, Charles Ballard describes his poetry, "My poetic effort came naturally at first and was concerned with Native American topics. Over the years these early topics gave way to other influences and some experimentation. At present I feel that my control is much more definite but also a matter of long and difficult thought." Charles G. Ballard is an associate professor of English at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and the Director of Native American Studies."

Dennis Banks was born on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. In 1968 he founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) to protect the traditional ways of Indian people and to engage in legal cases protecting treaty rights of natives - such as hunting and fishing, trapping, wild rice. Banks also travels the world lecturing, and providing drug and alcohol counseling. He established the first spiritual run from Avis to Los Angeles. He earned an Associates of Arts degree at Davis University and taught at DQ University, where he became the first American Indian Chancellor.  He authored the book The opening statements of Russell Means and Dennis Banks in U.S. vs Russell Means and U.S. vs Dennis Banks, in 1974.

Jim Barnes is of Choctaw-Welsh descent. He lumberjacked for ten years in Oregon's Willamette Valley. He was born and grew up in Summerfield, Oklahoma. He received his B.A. from Southeastern State College in Durant, OK (now Southeastern Oklahoma State University) in 1964 and his M.A. (1965) and Ph.D. (1972) from the University of Arkansas. He taught at Truman State University from 1970 to 2003, where he was Professor of Comparative Literature and Writer-in-Residence. After retiring from Truman State, he was Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at Brigham Young University. Jim married Cora Barnes McKown, artist and designer, in 2006. Jim is the founding editor of the Chariton Review Press and editor of The Chariton Review. He is also a contributing editor to the Pushcart Prize. He has published over 500 poems in more than 100 journals, including Poetry, Sewanee Review, Kenyon Review, The Nation, The Chicago Review, The American Scholar, Prairie Schooner and Georgia Review. His translations have also been published in journals, such as Translation, New Letters, Nimrod, Sycamore Review and Black Moon. His short stories have appeared in New Letters, Flyway, Connecticut Review, Texas Review, North American Review, South Dakota Review, Iowa Review, Descant, Sou'wester, Gargoyle, among others.

His community service involves membership in many organizations, including the Associated Writing Programs, the National Association for Ethnic Studies, PEN American Center, and PEN Center USA West. He has sat on several National Endowment for the Arts committees. He was Chair of the Camargo Foundation Creative Writing Selection Committee from 2001 through 2007. He is presently Poetry Editor for the Truman State University Press.

Jose Barreiro was born in 1948, in Camaguay, Cuba. Barreiro received M.A. from the State University of New York, Buffalo. He is a founding member of the Native American Press Association. Barreiro is a writer, editor and lecturer. He is also editor-in-chief of Akwe:kon Press, Cornell University. He has authored numerous articles on Native issues. His novel, The Indian Chronicles, was published in 1993 by Arte Publico Press.

Winner of an Artistic Community Enrichment Award 1993-94,  Louise Barton was born in 1934, New York, NY. She obtained her Master's degree from the University of New York in 1978. She is a teacher of Business Education, NYC Board of Education-George Washington High School. She is also a storyteller and has worked in community theater in all capacities, appearing in Shakespeare Festivals and at Medieval Fairs. Louise is an author, teacher and performer.

Marcellus Bear Heart Williams, author of The Wind Is My Mother, in 1996.  He  is a full-blooded Muskogee Creek Indian and a trained Medicine Man.