Pauletta Hansel is a poet, memoirist and teacher who is author of seven poetry collections in addition to Friend, including COAL TOWN PHOTOGRAPH (Dos Madres Press, 2019), PALINDROME (Dos Madres Press, 2017), winner of the 2017 Weatherford Award for best Appalachian Poetry. Her writing has been widely anthologized and featured in print and online journals including Oxford American, Rattle, The Writer's Almanac, American Life in Poetry, Verse Daily, Appalachian Journal, Appalachian Review, Cincinnati Review, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, and Still: The Journal, among others. Pauletta was Cincinnati's first Poet Laureate, 2016-2018.