Conrad Hilberry (b. 1928) grew up in Michigan. He earned his B.A. at Oberlin College and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin and taught at Kalamazoo College until his recent retirement. Hilberry has published several collections of poetry; he was poetry editor of Passages North and edited the anthology Poems from the Third Coast. His most recent books of poetry are Player Piano (Louisiana State University Press, 1999), Taking Notes on Nature's Wild Inventions (Snowy Egret, 1999), Sorting the Smoke: New and Selected Poems (University of Iowa Press, 1990, winner of the Iowa Prize), and The Hourglass Heart (New Issues, 2003).