NICOLE COOLEY grew up in New Orleans and is the author of seven books, the forthcoming Mother Water Ash (LSU Press 2024), as well as Of Marriage (Alice James Books 2018), Girl after Girl after Girl (LSU Press 2017) and Breach (LSU Press 2010). Her work has appeared most recently in POETRY, SCOUNDREL TIME and PLUME. She is the director of the MFA program in creative writing and literary translation at Queens College, City University of New York.