Donald Hall is considered one of the major American poets of his generation. He has published 15 books of poetry, beginning with "Exiles and Marriages" in 1955. His latest was "White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems" in…

Marie Ponsot has published several books of poems, including most recently, "Springing" (2002) and "The Bird Catcher" (1998), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.

Marie Ponsot has published several books of poems, including most recently, "Springing" (2002) and "The Bird Catcher" (1998), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.

Kwame Dawes is director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative and the University of South Carolina Arts Institute, where he also teaches as distinguished poet in residence.