Susan Tichy is the author of six books, most recently The Avalanche Path in Summer, a muscle-memory of a life in mountains, and Trafficke, a mixed-form investigation of family, race, and language spanning from Reformation Scotland to the abolition of slavery in Maryland. She has written extensively about war and its human consequences, including the volumes Gallowglass (Ahsahta, 2010), Bone Pagoda (Ahsahta, 2007), and A Smell of Burning Starts the Day (Wesleyan, 1988). Her first book The Hands in Exile (Random House, 1983) was selected for the National Poetry Series. Her work has been published in the US, UK, and Australia, and been recognized by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Pushcart Prize, a Chad Walsh Poetry Prize, and numerous other awards. Recently retired from 30 years teaching in George Mason University’s MFA & BFA programs, she lives in Colorado, dividing her time between her hand-built, solar-heated mountain cabin, and a city hide-away, where she walks, writes, makes paper, and offers private instruction and manuscript consultations.