Jessica Roeder was born in Chicago and lives in Duluth, Minnesota. Her stories, poems, and essays have appeared in magazines including Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Threepenny Review, American Poetry Review, and AGNI. She is the author of the prose chapbook Staircases Will Outnumber Us (Red Bird), a forthcoming poetry chapbook, Trees Full of Walking (dancing girl), and two erasures of Moby-Dick. The recipient of two McKnight Artist Fellowships, a Pushcart Prize, and a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, she teaches writing and modern dance and works as a copyeditor and proofreader for literary book publishers.