Jill Alexander Essbaum is the author of three full-length collections of poetry: Heaven (2000, University Press of New England), Harlot (2007, No Tell Books), and Necropolis (2008, NeoNuma Arts). Her first book, Heaven, won the 1999 Bakeless Prize in Poetry. Her poems have appeared in many journals including Poetry, The Christian Century, Image, Gulf Coast, and No Tell Motel. A former NEA Literature Fellow, her poem "On Reading Poorly Transcribed Erotica" was included in the anthology The Best American Erotic Poems, 1800-Present. A single-poem chapbook, The Devastation, is forthcoming from Cooper-Dillon Books in late fall. She lives in Austin, Texas.