Liz Waldner grew up in rural Mississippi and earned a BA in mathematics and philosophy at St. John's College and an MFA at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Her first book of poetry, HOMING DEVICES (O Books, 1998), came after an 18-year silence; since then, Waldner has published prolifically. Her recent books include A Point Is That Which Has No Part (2000), which won both the Iowa Poetry Prize and the James Laughlin Award, Self and Simulacra (2001), Dark Would (the missing person) (2002), TRUST (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2009), Play (Lightful Press, 2009), HER FAITHFULNESS (Miami University Press, 2016), and LITTLE HOUSE, BIG HOUSE (Noemi Press, 2016).