Render / An Apocalypse
Rebecca Gayle Howell's poems and translations appear in Ecotone, Hayden's Ferry Review, Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, storySouth, and elsewhere, and have been featured on Poetry Daily. She holds an MFA from Drew University and is a PhD candidate at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Her work has been previously recognized with the Jules Chametzky Prize in Literary Translation, a poetry fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and long-term support from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Howell's translation of Amal al-Jubouri's Hagar Before the Occupation/Hagar After the Occupation (Alice James Books) was listed by Library Journal as a Best Book of 2011 and was a finalist for Three Percent's Best Translated Book Award. Howell's homeplace is Lexington, Kentucky. 

Adventures in the Lost Interiors of America
William D. Waltz is the author of the poetry collection Zoo Music (Slope Editions, 2004) and the chapbook Confluence of Mysterious Origins (Factory Hollow Press, 2012). His poems have appeared in Black Warrior Review, Court Green, Denver Quarterly, jubilat, Washington Square, and elsewhere.  He holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and is the founder and editor of the literary journal Conduit.  

You Are Not Dead
Wendy Xu is the author of a chapbook The Hero Poems (H_NGM_N, 2011), and co-author of the collaborative chapbook I Was Not Even Born (Coconut Books, 2013). Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Journal, Columbia Poetry Review, CutBank, Forklift, Ohio, MAKE, Third Coast, and elsewhere. She currently studies in the Program for Poets & Writers at UMass-Amherst, and is the co-editor and publisher of iO: A Journal of New American Poetry / iO Books.

Vow
Rebecca Hazelton’s work has been published in Agni, The Gettysburg Review, and The Southern Review, featured on Verse Daily, and included in Best New Poets 2011. She holds an MFA from the University of Notre Dame, a PhD from Florida State University, and was the 2010-2011 Jay C. and Ruth Hall Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Creative Writing Institute. Her first book, Fair Copy, won The Ohio State Press/The Journal poetry award in 2011. In 2012, she won The Discovery/Boston Review Prize for Poetry, and is presently a Visiting Poet at Oklahoma State University.

First Book Competition Runners-Up: as selected by Nick Flynn   

Wendy Xu, Northampton, MA, You Are Not Dead
Micah Bateman, Iowa City, IA,  Bastard Star

Open Book Competition Runners-Up: as selected by Open Book Jury

Rebecca Hazelton, Stillwater, OK, Vow
Barbara Claire Freeman, Berkeley, CA, #343

First Book Competition Finalists

Anhvu Buchanan, San Francisco, CA, The Disorder   
          Index
Caroline Cabrera, Pelham, MA, Flood Bloom
Brittany Cavallaro, Madison, WI, Girl-King
Adam Day, Louisville, KY, Winter Inventory
Claire Donato, Brooklyn, NY, Off to the Nervous       
          Museum
Steffi Drewes, Emeryville, CA, Cartography Askew
John W. Evans, Stanford, CA, Young Widower
Kimberly Grey, Upper Saddle River, NJ, The Opposite
          of Robot is Light
Eileen G’Sell, St. Louis, MO, Euphoria Takes One for
        the Team
Lauren Haldeman, Iowa City, IA,Team Photograph
Kristin Hatch, San Francisco, CA, The Meatgirl   
        Whatever
Paul Hlava, Brooklyn, NY, Intergalactic Love Song
Maria Hummel, San Francisco, CA, House and Fire
Nicolas Hundley, Austin, TX, The Revolver in the Hive
Dawn Lonsinger, Salt Lake City, UT, Whelm
Marni Ludwig, St. Louis, MO, The White Room
Aubrie Marrin, Brooklyn, NY, Incognitum
Carey McHugh, New York, NY, Aviaries & Asylums
Hannah Sanghee Park, Seoul, South Korea, Word of
         [Thee], Worded by [The]
Charlotte Pence, Knoxville, TN, Spike
Adam Roberts, South Hadley, MA, Point
Cori A. Winrock, Rochester, NY, This Coalition of
         Bones

Open Book Competition Finalists

Seth Abramson, Madison, WI, Thievery
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Salt Lake City, UT, A
         Slice  from the Cake Made of Air
Crystal Curry, Seattle, WA, Onward
Christopher DeWeese, Northampton, MA,
        Tableaus
Leslie Harrison, Sandisfield, MA, Days & Hours
Endi Bogue Hartigan, Portland, OR, Pool
Charles Jensen, Tucson, AZ, Nanopedia
Anna Journey, Venice, CA, Vulgar Remedies
Daniel Khalastchi, Iowa City, IA, The Story of Your
        Obstinate Survival
Jason Koo, Brooklyn, NY, America’s Favorite Poem
Sarah Messer, Wilmington, NC, Flower of the
        Standard Talking Machine
Miguel Murphy, West Hollywood, CA, Green is the
        Sword
Danielle Pafunda, Laramie, WY, The Dead Girls
        Speak in Unison
Eric Pankey, Fairfax, VA, Dismantling the Angel
Katie Peterson, Lynchburg, VA, Permission
Peter Streckfus, Northport, AL, The Shoreling
Tom Thompson, New York, NY, Disorder
Jennifer Tseng, West Tisbury, MA, Red Flower,
           White  Flower
Joshua Ware, Denver, CO, Imaginary You
Crystal Williams, Portland, OR, Detroit as Barn