Carole Simmons Oles is a native of New York City. Her poems have appeared in Prarie Schooner, Ploughshares, the New England Reviews/Bread Loaf Quarterly, and Poetry. Her previous poetry collections are The Loneliness Factor, Quarry, and Night Watches: Inventions of the Life of Maria Mitchell. Oles has received many awards, including, for The Deed, the 1990 Virginia Prize for Poetry.