Shelley Puhak lives in Maryland. Her second collection was selected by Charles Simic for the 2013 Anthony Hecht Prize and her debut collection, Stalin in Aruba, was awarded the Towson Prize for Literature. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Carolina Quarterly, FIELD, and Ninth Letter, and in anthologies such as A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry.