Open Gate: An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry

Paul Laraque was a Haitian poet and activist. Born in Haiti in 1920, Laraque was known for his surrealist, political poetry and his opposition to François Duvalier's dictatorship in Haiti. In exile in the United States since the early 1960s, Laraque was a professor at Fordham University and lived in New York City. He died in 2007, and is survived by three sons.

Jack Hirschman is an American poet and social activist who has written more than 50 volumes of poetry and essays. Among his many volumes of poetry are A Correspondence of Americans, Lyripol, The Bottom Line, and Endless Threshold. Born in New York City in 1933, he has lived in San Francisco since 1973.