Born in rural Connecticut, Sheila Cowing graduated from Barnard College and earned her MFA from Goddard College's part-time writing program. She was a recipient of the New Jersey Arts Council's Distinguished Artist Fellowship, a Poets & Writers Reading award, and a Recursos Discovery award. Prior publications include Stronger in the Broken Places, a full-length poetry volume, and award-winning children's nonfiction. Six years the editor-in-chief of a national literary magazine for children, she has also worked as a freelance writer and editor, a landscaper, a telephone service operator, a personal secretary, a book salesperson, and, perhaps, most difficult, the mother of three daughters. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she writes, edits and gardens.