Melissa Tuckey, a graduate of the MFA program at George Mason University, is the author of the chapbook Rope as Witness. Her poems have been published in numerous journals, including Beloit Poetry Journal, Cincinnati Poetry Review, Poet Lore, Painted Bride Quarterly, Southeast Review, and Verse Daily. She is recipient of artist fellowships from Blue Mountain Center, the D.C. Commission on the Arts, and the Ohio Arts Council. She is an organizer of D.C. Poets Against the War and co-director of Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation and Witness.