George Oppen (April 24, 1908 - July 7, 1984) was an American poet, best known as one of the members of the Objectivist group of poets. He abandoned poetry in the 1930s for political activism, and later moved to Mexico to avoid the attentions of the House Un-American Activities Committee. He returned to poetry - and to the United States - in 1958, and received the Pulitzer Prize in 1969.

Charles Reznikoff (August 31, 1894 - January 22, 1976) was the poet for whom the term Objectivist was first coined. When asked by Harriet Munroe to provide an introduction to what became known as the Objectivist issue of "Poetry", Louis Zukofsky used his essay "Sincerity and Objectification: With Special Reference to the Work of Charles Reznikoff".

Carl Rakosi (November 6 1903 - June 25 2004) was the last surviving member of the original group of poets who were given the rubric Objectivist. He was still publishing and performing his poetry well into his 90s.

Louis Zukofsky was one of the most important second-generation American modernist poets. He was co-founder and primary theorist of the Objectivist group of poets and was to be an important influence on subsequent generations of poets in America and abroad.

Dr. William Carlos Williams (sometimes known as WCW) (September 17, 1883 - March 4, 1963), was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism.

Lorine Niedecker (May 12, 1903 - December 31, 1970) was born on the Black Hawk Island near Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. She lived most of her life here in rural isolation. She was the only woman associated with the Objectivist poets and is widely credited for demonstrating how an Objectivist poetic could handle the personal as subject matter.

Basil Cheesman Bunting was a British modernist poet. He had a lifelong interest in music and this led him to emphasise the sonic qualities of poetry, particularly the importance of reading poetry aloud. Bunting was an accomplished reader of his own work. Bunting was born in Scotswood-on-Tyne, Northumberland, now part of Newcastle upon Tyne, and educated at the Royal Grammar School there for two years.

Rachel Blau DuPlessis (born 1941), American poet and essayist, is known as a feminist critic and scholar with a special interest in modernist and contemporary poetry. DuPlessis teaches English and Creative Writing at Temple University and is the author of "Writing Beyond the Ending: Narrative Strategies of Twentieth-Century Women Writers" (1985), "H.D.: The Career of that Struggle" (1986), …

Michael Heller (b.1937), is an American poet, essayist and critic. Among his many books are "Exigent Futures", "In The Builded Place", "Wordflow" and "Living Root: A Memoir". He wrote the libretto for the opera, "Benjamin", based on the life of Walter Benjamin. He is recipient of awards including the NEH Poet/Scholar grant, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (NYFA), National Endowment for the Humanities award, …

Michael Davidson, born December 18, 1944 in Oakland, CA, is an American poet.

Kenneth Rexroth (December 221905 - June 61982) was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic forms such as haiku. He is regarded as a chief figure in the San Francisco Renaissance. Rexroth had two daughters, Mary (who later changed her name to Mariana) and Katharine, by his third wife, Marthe Larsen.

Mary Oppen (November 28, 1907 - May 14, 1990), American poet, was also an activist, artist, photographer, and writer. Though of a lesser fame than her husband (the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet George Oppen), she maintained a vital, animated role in the community of poets, painters, and activists who surrounded them.

Jay Vivian (David Whittaker) Chambers was an American writer, editor, Communist party member and spy for the Soviet Union who defected and became an outspoken opponent of communism. He is best known for his testimony about the perjury and espionage of Alger Hiss.

Robert Menzies McAlmon (March 9, 1896 - February 2, 1956) was an American author, poet and publisher. McAlmon was born in Clifton, Kansas. McAlmon was admitted to the University of Minnesota, but only spent one semester there before enlisting in the United States Air Corps in 1918. At the conclusion of World War I, he returned to university, this time at the University of Southern California.