Erin Belieu was born and raised in Nebraska and is the author of three poetry collections: Infanta, selected for the National Poetry Series by Hayden Carruth and named one of the ten best books of 1995 by the National Book Critics’ Circle; One Above & One Below, which won the Ohioana Award and the Society of Midland Authors Award; and Black Box (Copper Canyon Press, 2006), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. With Susan Aizenberg she edited The Extraordinary Tide: New Poetry by American Women. Belieu teaches at Florida State University.