Born in Nebraska, Erin Belieu earned an MA from Boston University and an MFA from Ohio State University. Belieu's work focuses on gender, love, and history, filtering wide-ranging subject matter through a variety of theoretical frameworks. She often addresses feminist issues and uses poetic conventions and street talk. Belieu is the author of many books of poetry, including Come-Hither Honeycomb (2020); Slant Six (2014); Black Box (2006), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; One Above & One Below (2000); and Infanta (1995), selected by Hayden Carruth for the National Poetry Series. Belieu coedited, with Susan Aizenberg, the anthology The Extraordinary Tide: New Poetry by American Women (2001). Belieu has received admiring reviews for her poetry throughout her writing career. Book critic Dwight Garner in The New York Times says ?Belieu is a poet who can't abide pretension," and ?She's a comedian of the human spirit, in league with poets from Frank O'Hara, to Deborah Garrison, to Tony Hoagland."