Paola d’Agnese was born in Naples, Italy. She is a founder of the cultural association Donne e Poesia of the Casa Internazionale delle Donne, in Rome, where she has led workshops as well as organized readings and conferences for more than a decade. She is the author of the poetry collections 58 secondi (Zona, 2010, accompanied by a note by Ennio Morricone), Rima di Frattura (Guida, 2019, in collaboration with Fabrizio Falconi), and Così diviso il corpo (Samuele, 2021). “Bianco” (“White”) originally appeared in Italian in Rima di Frattura. This translation appears courtesy of Guida Editori.

Toti O’Brien was born in Rome, Italy. She is the author of several books including Other Maidens and In Her Terms, two volumes of poetry published by BlazeVOX in 2020 and Cholla Needles Press in 2021, respectively, and An Alphabet of Birds, a collection of short nonfiction stories published by Moonrise Press in 2020. O’Brien currently lives in Los Angeles, California.