Kirsten Dierking is the author of three books of poetry, TETHER (Spout Press, 2013), NORTHERN ORACLE (Spout Press, 2007), and ONE RED EYE (Holy Cow! Press, 2001). Her poems have been heard on The Writer's Almanac and have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Garrison Keillor's Good Poems, American Places and To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present. She is the recipient of a 2010 McKnight Artist Fellowship, a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant for literature, a Loft Literary Center Career Initiative Grant, a SASE/Jerome Grant, and a writing residency at the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts. She teaches humanities courses at Anoka-Ramsey Community College. In 2011, Kirsten received the NEA's Excellence in the Academy Award for the Art of Teaching, and in 2009 she received the Building Bridges Award in Education from the Islamic Resource Group of Minnesota.