Jason Morphew started life in a mobile home in Pike County, Arkansas; at UCLA he’s completing his Ph.D dissertation, “Hamlet’s Petrarchism.” He’s published the poetry chapbook In Order to Commit Suicide and been interviewed about it in Quarterly West. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Bellevue Literary Review, The Cortland Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Storm Cellar, Santa Fe Literary Review, Gigantic, Venus Magazine, and Public Pool, among others. His poem “field song” was a finalist for the 2017 Marica and Jan Vilcek Prize for Poetry; his poem “Winery” was a finalist in Naugatuck River Review’s 8th Annual Narrative Poetry Contest. He’s been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He read alongside Claudia Rankine and Afaa Michael Weaver at the 2014 Kingsley Tufts Award ceremony; he often performs with the poet Joe Wenderoth. As a singer-songwriter he’s released albums on the labels Brassland, Ba Da Bing!, Max, and Unread.