For the past decade Nancy Takacs has worked with inmates, seniors, and children for the Utah Arts Council’s Artist in Education program. Former wilderness studies instructor and creative writing professor, she is an emeritus professor at Utah State University Eastern. She is a recipient of the Nation/Discovery Award, Kay Saunders New Poet Prize, is a six-time first-prize winner of the Utah Arts Council’s Original Writing Contest; and has twice been a finalist for the Utah Book Award. She has three chapbooks: Pale Blue Wings, Juniper, and Wild Animals; and a book Preserves. A new book Stem is forthcoming in 2014 from Blue Begonia Press. Takacs’s poems have appeared in Rattle, Weber Journal, The Tampa Review, Nimrod, Clover, Red Rock Review, Sugar House Review, Main Street Rag, and Verse Wisconsin. She lives in Wellington, Utah, spending summers in a cabin in Wisconsin. Takacs is originally from Bayonne, New Jersey.