Information on the poets and their books

Mark Halperin lives outside Ellensburg. "Parakeet" comes from his new book, "Falling Through the Music" (University of Notre Dame Press, 64 pp., $18), which also contains poems drawing from his experience traveling and teaching in Russia.

Peter Pereira is a Seattle family physician. His new book, "What's Written on the Body" (Copper Canyon, 103 pp., $15), draws both on his experiences in medicine and on his own lively sense of the mutability of language, as "Anagrammer" demonstrates.

Susan Rich has been a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, an electoral supervisor in Bosnia and a teacher at the University of Cape Town. She now lives in Seattle and teaches at Highline Community College. Her recent book, "Cures Include Travel" (White Pine Press, 99 pp., $14), from which "Mr. Saturday Night" is taken, draws on her itinerant experience.

Richard Wakefield lives in Federal Way, teaches at Tacoma Community College and frequently reviews for The Seattle Times. His book "East of Early Winters" (University of Evansville Press, 75 pp., $15), from which "Airborne" is taken, won the 2006 Richard Wilbur Award.

Judith Roche is currently in residence as a Distinguished Northwest Writer at Seattle University. "Hunger" is from her collection, "Wisdom of the Body" (Black Heron, 94 pp., $14.95), due in bookstores in early May.