Shari Miller Wagner was born in Goshen, Indiana and grew up near Markle, along the Wabash River. Her father worked as a family physician and her mother as the editor of The Markle Times. When Wagner was thirteen, her family spent a year in Somalia, in the village of Jamama. After majoring in English at Goshen College, Wagner worked in Louisiana as a Mennonite volunteer for the Clifton-Choctaw, researching their history and tutoring the school children. At Indiana University she earned her MFA degree and met her husband, Chuck Wagner. They taught two years at Western Carolina University and then returned to Indiana, teaching at Franklin College and Butler University. She has taught creative writing in elementary schools, community centers, libraries and nursing homes. She has been an instructor with the Indiana Writers Center for the last six years, teaching workshops in poetry and memoir. She and her husband and two daughters, Vienna and Iona, live north of Indianapolis in Westfield. Her first book or poetry was Evening Chore (Cascadia 2008). She provides the photographs for this new book.