Poet Mark Turcotte spent his earliest years on North Dakota’s Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation and in the migrant camps of western United States. He has published four volumes of poetry, including Exploding Chippewas, and his work, four times nominated for Pushcart Prizes, has appeared widely in such publications as Ploughshares, TriQuarterly and Poetry. Turcotte also won the first Gwendolyn Brooks Open-Mic Poetry Award in 1993.
Of his work Louise Erdrich says, “Mark Turcotte’s work is powered by anger, hilarity, and an earthy tenderness that grabs the heart and won’t let go.” He currently lives in New Mexico.