Physicist and writer, Alan Lightman, on reading the poems in Swirling Symmetry saw them as cloaked in the trappings of mathematics while expressing a “deeply human response to the world  ̶  at once whimsical, spiritual, philosophical, and touching.” Sandra DeLozier Coleman has a passion for pattern that infuses her art and her poetry.  A childhood appreciation for the wonder of number led to two university degrees in mathematics and membership in Pi Mu Epsilon. During 30 years of teaching, she was book review editor for The AMATYC Review. She reached a decades-long goal of translating the poems and plays of Sofia Kovalevskaya, the first woman to earn a PhD in mathematics, by teaching herself Russian, beginning with the Cyrillic alphabet. She continues to participate in JMM art exhibitions and to study mathematics and share original ideas.

A teacher of literature and writing in the Memphis area for nearly forty years, Shari Brand Ray is currently English Department Chair at St. Mary's Episcopal School in Memphis. A native Memphian, Shari enjoys taking long walks on the Greenline, teaching English, and writing on her back porch while she watches the birds. Infusing verse throughout much of her prose, Ray leans on the shoulders of the great poets for both truth and inspiration.

Alanna Grayce Campbell holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Political Science and Homeland Security, but her greatest passion is for art. She was raised in the hills of Easter Kentucky where there is a culture of creating and storytelling. After graduation, she moved to Florida's Gulf Coast where she discovered her talent for illustrating while working as an art gallery manager surrounded by a very supportive artist community.  In her first book, If I Had A Baby, Alanna has combined her talent for illustration with her delightful poetry to capture universal feelings of tenderness which all aunts and uncles share. ​ ​

Sarah Robin Coleman began her journey toward an art career as a young child under the tutelage of her artist grandmother, who taught her the basic principles of drawing, balance and color theory while other children her age were still finger painting. She continued her education in the arts receiving a Bachelor's degree in History with a minor in Fine Arts. She has worked as a portrait artist in watercolor, oil and acrylic, and, in various genres, as an illustrator. Her beautiful, mystical paintings hang in private collections across the country.

Mary Gardner has been writing poetry since 2017. Her poetry has been published in the 2023 and 2024 issues of the Society of Classical Poets Journal. A retired contract specialist, she lives with her husband, Al, in Northwest Florida and meets regularly with a local poets group. Otto and Octavius is her first children's book.

Dr Michael L. Berman is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Irvine, having spent 37 years there on the faculty. He helped train more than 300 residents to become OB/GYN physicians and more than 60 fellows to become gynecologic oncologists. He was repeatedly listed among the Best Doctors in America. He has written nearly 200 scientific papers and co-authored a widely respected surgical atlas. He has been an invited speaker to numerous academic centers including his alma mater, George Washington University, Yale University, Cornell University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and many others. He was elected president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology in 2001. But he believes that his greatest achievement was sharing, with his wife Marlene, the responsibilities for raising their four daughters.

Robert L. "Bob" Russell served 27 years in the US Air Force, much of this time as a Special Operations Weather Officer. Colonel Russell retired in 2012 as the Commander of the Air Force Weather Agency which supports United States and allied military operations world-wide. His varied career included assignments as the weather operations officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon and the senior weather officer for the Air Force, Army, and Joint Special Operations Commands. The Bob Mcleod and the Storm Makers Trilogy is his thought-provoking fiction of the potential good and evil of weather modification.

John Shuford "Jack" Richbourg graduated from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970. He received his Juris Doctorate from the Memphis State University, Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in 1974. He retired from the practice of law after 48 years and enrolled in Memphis Theological Seminary where he has earned a James A. Netters Certificate of Congregational Ministry and is presently working on a Certificate of theological Studies. He has begun a second career as a freelance writer and has compiled a book of reflections given at Holy Communion Episcopal Church called, appropriately enough, Reflections.  He is a regular contributor to the Tidings a local Memphis periodical.  He has written several short stories and has published poetry in Lonzie's Fried Chicken, a literary journal specializing in southern stories and poems.

After serving a career in the United States Air Force and later as a civil servant in the Department of Defense, Richard Wilkes Taylor and his high school sweetheart Mary first settled in Colorado Springs, before finally landing near family in Cumming, Georgia. The two keep busy reading, putting miles on a tandem bicycle, walking, hiking, and traveling. Richard is an avid birder, an avocation he enjoys while attempting to visit all the US National Park properties.

Elaine Blanchard is a spiritual leader, activist, playwright and storyteller. Her work has appeared in Christian Century Magazine and Memphis Magazine. She has written and performed three one-woman shows, For Goodness Sake, Good People, and Skin and Bones. Elaine teaches memoir writing to senior citizens through a nonprofit, Creative Aging. A lover of nature, Elaine is a daily walker. She is a proud mother and grand-mother. And she lives in Memphis, TN with her wife, Anna.

Nicholas Komar, a lifelong birder, was president of the Colorado Field Ornithologists when he retired as a disease ecologist and began his year-long odyssey that is the subject of this book. He also co-wrote "Wild Birding Colorado, the Big Year of 2010" published in 2011. He holds degrees from Harvard and the University of Massachusetts. In 2004 he was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease.