Cara Dees is the author of the poetry collection, Exorcism Lessons in the Heartland (Barrow Street Press, 2019), selected for the Barrow Street Book Prize by Ada Limón. She has earned an MFA from Vanderbilt University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati, and her work appears in publications such as the Best New Poets series, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, Indiana Review, and Poetry Daily.