Hank Lazer’s eighteen books of poetry include N24 (2014) and N18 (2012), Portions (2009), and The New Spirit (2005). Pages from Lazer’s shape-writing handwritten notebooks have been performed with soprano saxophonist Andrew Raffo Dewar in the US and in two concerts in Havana, Cuba. Lazer’s Selected Poems in translation will be appearing in books in the coming year in China, Cuba, and Italy. In 2015, Lazer was selected to receive Alabama’s most prestigious literary prize, the Harper Lee Award, for lifetime achievement in literature. For more on the Notebooks, see the special online features in Talisman #42 and Plume #34.

Holland Hopson is a composer, improviser, and electronic artist. Holland augments his banjos and saxophones with custom-designed sensor interfaces and performs with his own highly responsive, interactive computer programs. He has held recent residencies with composer David Behrman at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida; performing with the musical robots of LEMURPlex, Brooklyn; and Harvestworks Digital Media Arts, New York where he developed a sound installation based on Marcel Duchamp’s sculpture, With Hidden Noise. Holland’s latest solo recording is Post & Beam, a collection of traditional and original songs arranged for banjo and live electronics.