Marilyn L. Taylor, former Poet Laureate of the state of Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee, is the author of six poetry collections, including Step on a Crack (Kelsay Books, 2016) and Going Wrong (Parallel Press, 2009). Her award-winning poems and essays have appeared in many anthologies and journals, including Poetry, The American Scholar, Measure, and the Random House anthology titled Villanelles. She also served for five years as a contributing editor for The Writer magazine, where her “Poet to Poet” column on craft appeared bimonthly. More recently Taylor was awarded the 2015 Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Prize, and was named a finalist for the 2016 X.J. Kennedy Parody Contest, the 2016 Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award, and the 2018 Lascaux Review Prize. She is currently an associate editor for Verse-Virtual and Third Wednesday poetry journals. Taylor continues to facilitate independent poetry workshops and presentations throughout Wisconsin and across the country, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Continuing Education program, the Poetry-by-the-Sea Writers Conference in Madison, Connecticut, and Lawrence University’s Björklunden Seminar Center in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin.