Olivia Somes holds a BA in creative writing and literature and an MFA in poetry from California State University, Long Beach where she won the William Shadden Scholarship Award for poetry. You can find her poetry in Verdad, Carnival, Crack the Spine, Cadence Collective, and Bankheavy Press, and forthcoming in [PANK] and American Mustard. Her chapbook, Life After Purgatory, was released in the Fall of 2012 (Bankheavy Press).