MARILYN TAYLOR is the former Poet Laureate of the state of Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee, and the author of six poetry collections, the newest of which, Step on a Crack, was published in 2016 by White Violet Press (Kelsay Books). Her poems and essays have appeared in many anthologies and journals, including Poetry, Measure, Able Muse, Rhino, and the Random House anthology titled Villanelles. She has been awarded First Place in a number of national and international poetry contests, most recently from Winning Writers (the 2015 Margaret Reid Award for verse in forms.) She has been a finalist for the X.J. Kennedy Parody Contest, the Howard Nemerov Sonnet awared, and the 2017 Lacaux Review prize. She also edited the anthology titled Love Affairs at the Villanelle (Kelsay Books, 2018). She currently serves on the editorial staffs of Verse-Virtual and Third Wednesday poetry journals. Taylor lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and regularly facilitates independent poetry workshops and presentations statewide and elsewhere—including programs sponsored by Lawrence University, Poetry by the Sea in Connecticut, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Continuing Studies.