Michael Perkins grew up in southern Ohio and graduated from Ohio University (Athens) in 1963 after studies at The New School. He was a welfare caseworker, a remedial reading teacher and a bookstore owner, later becoming a freelance writer and small press editor (Tompkins Square Press and Croton Press, Ltd.). He arrived in Woodstock, NY in 1972, and worked as a program director for various arts organizations. He has published over 40 books of poetry, fiction, literary criticism and local history. While in Woodstock he became an avid hiker and in 1986 he walked across Connecticut in a week.

Will Nixon grew up in the Connecticut suburbs, spent his young adulthood in Hoboken and Manhattan, then moved to a Catskills log cabin in 1996 complete with a wood stove and mice. For years, he wrote environmental journalism, then turned to poetry and personal essays. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and listed in Best American Essays 2004. He now lives in Woodstock, NY with a wall thermostat for heat, but still can't get rid of the mice.