is a graduate of The Iowa Writer's Workshop, former National Poetry Slam participant, a screenwriter, a poet, a writing professor, a memoirist, an essayist, a novelist, an editor of the Columbia Poetry Review, a guitarist, and a painter. Her work has been published widely in places like The Boston Review and Sixth Finch and she's won fellowships, like the Iowa Lakeside Fellowship, and contests such as The Indiana Review 1/2 K Prize, an Eileen Lannan Prize in Poetry, and Donald Justice Memorial Prize in Poetry.