Matt Yurdana has worked at a variety of jobs, including raising salmon in Alaska, teaching writing to US soldiers in South Korea, and directing the MFA program in creative writing at Pacific University. Matt received his MFA in poetry from the University of Montana. His poems have appeared in a variety of journals, including: Alaska Quarterly Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Massachusetts Review, The North American Review, Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, and The Southern Review. Among his awards are an NEA Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, the Richard Hugo Memorial Scholarship and the Academy of American Poets Award from the University of Montana, and the C. Hamilton Bailey Fellowship from Literary Arts. Yurdana’s book of poems, PUBLIC GESTURES was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award.