Maurya Simon’s tenth volume of poetry, The Wilderness: New & Selected Poems, 1980–2016, was recently published by Red Hen Press (2018). Other recent publications include The Raindrop’s Gospel: The Trials of St. Jerome & St. Paula (Elixir Press, 2010), and Questions My Daughter Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave Her (Blackbird Press, 2014). Simon has received an NEA Fellowship in poetry and two awards from the Poetry Society of America, and this fall she will serve her third visiting artist residency at the American Academy in Rome. Simon is currently a Professor of the Graduate Division and a Professor Emerita at the University of California–Riverside, where she taught literature and creative writing for nearly thirty years.