Cole Swensen received her B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz.  Her 10 books of poetry include The Book of a Hundred Hands from University of Iowa Press, 2005; Goest, a finalist for the National Book Award, from Alice James Books in 2004; Noon, from Sun & Moon press in 1997; and New Math, from William Morrow & Co. in 1988. Her awards include a PEN Literary Award for Translation, a Pushcart Prize, an Iowa Prize for Poetry, and a San Francisco State Poetry Center Book Award. Her translations of contemporary French poetry include The Island of the Dead, by Jean Frémon; Art Poetic by Olivier Cadiot; Natural Gaits by Pierre Alferi; Past Travels by Olivier Cadiot; and Interrmittances II by Jean Tortel.  Swensen teaches at the Writers' Workshop at University of Iowa, and she is the founder and editor of La Presse, a small press dedicated to publishing contemporary French poetry in translation.

Raised in Silver Spring, Theodora Danylevich recently returned to the area to pursue a Master's at Georgetown University in Communication and Cultural Studies. She studied Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and while living in New York City participated in workshops at St. Mark's Poetry Project. 

Letterpress Broadsides of the poets (made in collaboration with printmaker Val Lucas of Pyramid Atlantic) will be available at the reading.