Julia Koets is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of South Florida. She is the author of three books: The Rib Joint, a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist, PINE, a Florida Book Award winner, and Hold Like Owls, a South Carolina Poetry Book Award winner. Her essays and poems have been published or are forthcoming in literary journals including Creative Nonfiction, Indiana Review, Nimrod, The Los Angeles Review, Carolina Quarterly, and Portland Review. She earned her M.F.A. at the University of South Carolina and her Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Cincinnati.