Lee Ann Roripaugh was born and raised in Laramie, Wyoming. She received an M.F.A. in creative writing from Indiana University. Other degrees include an M.M. in music history from Indiana University and a B.M. in piano performance from Indiana University. Her first volume of poetry, Beyond Heart Mountain, was selected as a 1998 winner of the National Poetry Series, and was also named a finalist in the 2000 Asian American Literary Awards. Ms. Roripaugh was also the winner of the Randall Jarrell International Poetry Prize in 1995. Other honors include an AWP Intro Award and an Academy of American Poets Prize. Her poetry and fiction has appeared in journals such as Parnassus: Poetry in Review, New England Review, Black Warrior Review, Cream City Review, Crab Orchard Review, Phoebe and Seneca Review, among others. Her poetry has also been selected for inclusion in the anthologies American Poetry: The Next Generation (Carnegie Mellon Press), Woven on the Wind (Houghton Mifflin), American Identities: Contemporary Multicultural Voices (University of New England Press), as well as the Dell anthology Waltzing on Water: Poetry by Women. Ms. Roripaugh is currently an Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Dakota.