Lianne Spidel grew up in Detroit, daughter of an automotive artist to whom her chapbook of art poems, Chrome, is dedicated. A retired high school English teacher, she is a graduate of Wittenberg University and of the University of Michigan Rackham School. Her other books are Pairings, a chapbook of art and poetry with Michigan artist Ann Loveland, and What to Tell Joseme, for which she was named Ohio Poet of the Year, 2013.