Ruth Nolan

Ruth Nolan, M.A., is a native of the Mojave Desert circa Apple Valley and Associate Professor of English College of the Desert near Palm Springs, CA. She is also a poet, writer, and book editor/publisher. For two summer seasons, 1986-87, she worked for the BLM as a helicopter hotshot and engine crew firefighter in the California Desert District, and has extensively hiked, traveled, and embraced the essence of her desert homeland. Her poetry collections include: Negotiating With Testosterone (1995, Northern Arizona University;) Wild Wash Road (1996) and Dry Waterfall (2008) (both by Petroglyph Books.) Her poems have recently appeared in Pacific Review, Mosaic, Poemeleon, San Gabriel Valley Quarterly, Fishtrap Anthology 2007, San Diego Poetry Annual 2007, Genie, Haiku Journal Summer 2008, and Inlandia: A Literary Journey through Southern California's Inland Empire (Heyday Books, 2006). Ruth is also editing an anthology of California desert literature for Heyday Books, to be published in 2009. She is advisor and editor of the new California desert literary magazine, Phantom Seed.