Simone Muench is the daughter of hippie parents who named her after Nina Simone. She received her PhD from the University of Illinois, and now directs Lewis University's Writing Program where she teaches creative writing and film studies. She is an editor for Sharkforum, a faculty advisor for Jet Fuel Review, and a recipient of a 2013 NEA Fellowship, two Vermont Studio Center Fellowships, the PSA's Bright Lights Big Verse Contest, a 2013 Lewis Faculty Scholar Award, two Illinois Arts Council Fellowships, and the Frederick Stern Award for Teaching. Her first collection, The Air Lost in Breathing, won the Marianne Moore Prize for Poetry and her second collection, Lampblack & Ash, received the Kathryn A. Morton Award for Poetry and a New York Times Editors' Choice. She is a vegetarian Southerner and a life long horror film fan.