Raised in a renovated slaughterhouse on the outskirts of Wilmington, Ohio, Shannon C. Ward is author of the poetry collection, Blood Creek (Longleaf Press, 2013). She received her MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from The North Carolina State University in 2009, and from 2010-2021, taught composition, literature, and creative writing at Methodist University.  A recipient of the Foley Poetry Award, the White Oak Kitchen Prize in Southern Poetry, and the Nazim Hikmet Poetry Prize, Ward has also been a resident fellow at YaddoWillapa Bay AirNorton IslandBrush Creek Ranch, and the Anderson Center. Her poems have appeared in many excellent journals, including New Ohio Review, Great River ReviewTar River Poetryand others. In 2020, she became Executive Editor of Longleaf Press after beginning there as a student intern in 2007 and serving several years as an Assistant Editor.