Ed Roberson's twelve previous books of poetry include MPH AND OTHER ROAD POEMS (Verge Books, 2021) and Asked What Has Changed (Wesleyan University Press, 2021), a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize. A former special programs administrator at Rutgers University's Cook Campus, Roberson has lived in Chicago since 2004 and is an emeritus professor in Northwestern University's MFA creative writing program. He has also held posts at the University of Chicago, Columbia College, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Cave Canem retreat for Black writers. His honors include the Jackson Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award, and the African American Literature and Culture Association's Stephen Henderson Critics Award.