Heather Derr-Smith is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop (Poetry '97) and the author of four books of poetry, Each End of the World (Main Street Rag Press, 2005), The Bride Minaret (University of Akron Press, 2008), Tongue Screw (Sparkwheel Press, 2016) and Thrust, winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky Editor's Prize, Persea Books, 2017). Derr-Smith is also the founder and director of Cuvaj se/Take Care a nonprofit supporting writers in conflict zones and post-conflict recovery zones.