Catherine Carter was born in Maryland and now lives in Cullowhee with her husband near Western Carolina University, where she coordinates the English education program. Her first collection, The Memory of Gills (LSU Press) received the 2007 Roanoke-Chowan Award from the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in Poetry, Orion, and The Best American Poetry 2009, among others. Her next volume of poetry, The Swamp Monster at Home, is forthcoming from LSU Press in spring 2012.