Joaquin Zihuatanejo is a poet, spoken word artist, and award-winning teacher. Born and raised in the barrio of East Dallas, Joaquín strives to capture the duality of Chicano culture in his work. He's been called ?one of the most dynamic and passionate performance poets in the country, melding equal parts comedy, poetry, and dramatic monologue into a crowd-pleasing display of verbal fireworks.? Joaquin was a National Poetry Slam Finalist, a Grand Slam Spoken Word Champion, and HBO Def Poet, performing at universities, conferences and poetry slams all over North America and Europe.

David Bowles is a Mexican American writer and translator from South Texas, where he teaches literature and Nahuatl as a professor at the University of Texas Río Grande Valley. Among his more than forty award-winning books are They Call Me Güero; My Two Border Towns; Ancient Night; Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Maya Poetry; The Prince & the Coyote; and Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico. His work has also been published in multiple anthologies and textbooks, plus venues such as The New York Times, The Emancipator, School Library Journal, Rattle, Translation Review, and the Journal of Children's Literature. In 2019, he co-founded the hashtag and activist movement #DignidadLiteraria, which successfully fought for greater Latinx representation in publishing. He is a past president of the Texas Institute of Letters.