Katharyn Howd Machan studied creative writing and literature at the College of Saint Rose and at the University of Iowa, taught college for five years, returned to graduate school for a Ph.D. in Interpretation at Northwestern University and, now as a full professor, has been teaching on the faculty of the Department of Writing at Ithaca College ever since. For many years she directed the national Feminist Women's Writing Workshops. Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines, anthologies, and textbooks and in 32 collections, most recently H (winner of 2013 Gribble Press chapbook contest) & Wild Grapes: Poems of Fox (first runner-up in 2013 Finishing Line Press chapbook contest). In 2002 she was named the first Poet Laureate of Tompkins County, New York. Fairy tales inform much of her writing and teaching, as evidenced by her most widely published poem: HAZEL TELLS LAVERNE last night im cleanin out my howard johnsons ladies room when all of a sudden up pops this frog musta come from the sewer swimmin aroun an tryin ta climb up the sida the bowl so i goes ta flushm down but sohelpmegod he starts talkin bout a golden ball an how i can be a princess me a princess well my mouth drops all the way to the floor an he says kiss me just kiss me once on the nose well i screams ya little green pervert an i hitsm with my mop an has ta flush the toilet down three times me a princess