Allison Adelle Hedge Coke is descended from Huron, Cherokee, Creek, Metis, French Canadian, Lorraine, Portuguese, English, Scot, and Irish ascendants. Books include Dog Road Woman (American Book Award); Off-Season City Pipe; Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer; Blood Run, and eight edited volumes. Performances include international poetry festivals in Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Jordan, and Canada. Hedge Coke came up working horses, tobacco, commercial fishing, in construction, and in factories. She mentors incarcerated youth and working-class writers, teaches writing as the Paul W. and Clarice Kingston Reynolds Chair, and is Associate Professor of Poetry and Writing at the University of Nebraska, Kearney.