John Clifford is Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he teaches literature, writing, and theory. During the summer he teaches literary response at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and reading theory at Northeastern's Martha's Vineyard Workshops. He has taught writing at Queens College, CUNY, and was a high school English teacher and chairman for ten years in Brooklyn, New York. He received his Ph.D. in 1977 from New York University
Robert DiYanni received a B.A. from Rutgers University in 1968 and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York in 1976. He has taught at Queens College of the City University of New York, New York University, Harvard University, and Pace University. He has written articles and reviews on various aspects of literature, composition, and pedagogy. He has written numerous books including The McGraw-Hill Book of Poetry, Women's Voices, Like Season'd Timber: New Essays on George Herbert, and Modern American Poets: Their Voices and Visions.