I'm a 5th generation Californian, descended from Gold Rush pioneers. My first book--_Each Thing We Know Is Changed Because We Know It, and Other Poems_--was a finalist for the National Poetry Series. Larry Levis called it "brilliant" and Kevin Starr called me "a genuine poetic talent connected to California in a most powerful way." My poems have been published in _The Yale Review_, _The Georgia Review_, _Zocalo_ and numerous other journals and been reprinted in: _California Poetry: from the Gold Rush to the Present_, _Califlora_, _Unfolding Beauty: Celebrating California's Landscapes_, _The Poetry Cure_, _A Bird As Black As the Sun_, _New California Writing 2013_, and other anthologies. I was educated at Stanford (A.B.), Iowa (MFA), UC Santa Cruz (M.A., Ph.D.), and I have taught at Iowa, Coe College, UC Santa Cruz, San Jose State, Cal State L.A., UCLA Extension, UCSC Extension, Notre Dame de Namur and Santa Clara. From 1987-1991 I was poetry co-editor of _Quarry West_. I am one of the original voices of the California Legacy Series Radio Anthology (www.californialegacy.org [2]), and I have also been the revision editor of the current critical edition of _The Grapes of Wrath_, co-editor of _Beyond Boundaries: Rereading John Steinbeck_ and editor of _The Essential Mary Austin. I'm a founding member of the editorial board of _Steinbeck Review_ and-- from September 1, 2008-July 1, 2013--I was a Visiting Scholar at the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University.