Kathleen Flenniken is the author of two poetry collections: Plume (University of Washington Press, 2012), a meditation on the Hanford Nuclear Site and her hometown of Richland, Washington, won the Washington State Book Award and was a finalist for the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America and the Pacific Northwest Book Awards. Her first book, Famous (University of Nebraska Press, 2006), won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association. Kathleen's awards include a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Artist Trust. She served as Washington State Poet Laureate from 2012 to 2014. Kathleen holds an MFA degree in creative writing from Pacific Lutheran University, as well as bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering. She lives in Seattle.