Phillip Howerton holds a PhD in English from University of Missouri-Columbia and is a professor of English at a small university in southeastern Missouri. His work has appeared in numerous journals and books, such as American History through Literature, Arkansas Review, Christian Science Monitor, The Concord Saunterer, Encyclopedia of American Environmental Literature, Journal of Kentucky Studies, The Midwest Quarterly, Plainsongs, Red Rock Review, The South Carolina Review, Teaching American Literature, Thoreau Society Bulletin, and Writers of the American Renaissance. He is a co-founder and poetry editor of Cave Region Review, an associate editor of The Heartland Review, and has served as general editor of Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozarks Studies. His poetry collection, The History of Tree Roots, was published by Golden Antelope Press in 2015, and his The Literature of the Ozarks: An Anthology was published by University of Arkansas Press in 2019, for which he received the 2019 Missouri Literary Award from the Missouri Library Association. His second poetry collection, Gods of Four Mile Creek, was released by Golden Antelope Press in October 2023. He is also the owner of Cornerpost Press. This press published Steve Wiegenstein's Scattered Lights, which was a finalist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award, and Wild Muse: Ozarks Nature Poetry, a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award.