Marlene Cookshaw was born and raised in southern Alberta and now lives on Pender Island, BC. She edits The Malahat Review, and teaches at the Victoria School of Writing. She has served on juries for various writing awards, among them the BC Book Prize for Poetry and the Prince Edward Island Literary Competition. Marlene is the author of three earlier books of poetry, two of which, The Whole Elephant (1989) and Double Somersaults (1999), were published by Brick Books.