William Reichard (1963- ) was born in raised in Smith's Mill, a village of approximately 70 people in south central Minnesota. Reichard attended the University of Minnesota, where he received a B.A. in Film Studies in 1986. After studying photography for two years, he entered the Creative Writing Program at the Univ. of MN in 1988, and received his degree in 1991. Reichard finished his M.A. as he started work on his Ph.D. in 20th Century American Literature. He received his doctorate in 1997. His first book, An Alchemy in the Bones, won a MN Voices Prize and was published in 1999. In 2004, Mid-List Press published How To, his second collection, and it was one of five finalists for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. 2007 saw the publication of This Brightness, and in 2010 Sin Eater was published. In addition to his poetry, Reichard also works as an editor. In 2001 he edited the award winning memoir The Evening Crowd at Kirmser's: A Gay Life in the 1940's by Ricardo Brown. It was published by the Univ. of MN Press. New Village Press published his anthology of contemporary fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, American Tensions: Literature of Identity and the Search for Social Justice, in 2011. Reichard frequently collaborates with other artists. Composers Phil Fried and Douglas Opal have each set several of Reichard's texts to music, and he's produced two multi-media dance works with choreographer Cynthia Stevens: Leonora's Dream and Site Lines. He's collaborated with photographer and curator Roger Manley, and created evening length performances of 20th century piano music with pianists Jill Dawe and Nicola Melville. Reichard directs two off-campus study programs for the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs: Writing for Social Change (each fall) and Art for Social Change (each spring). He lives in Saint Paul, MN.