Janet McAdams grew up in Alabama and attended the University of Alabama, where she was graduated with a B.A. in English and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Her first book, The Island of Lost Luggage, won the Diane Decorah Award for Poetry from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas and was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2000. Praised by reviewers as "closely crafted" and "achingly beautiful," the collection received the American Book Award in 2001. She has been a resident artist at the Hambidge Center, the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center, and Ucross. A certified Integr...