Iris Jamahl Dunkle  is an award-winning literary biographer and poet who was the former Poet Laureate of Sonoma County, CA. Her latest books include the biography Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020) and her fourth poetry collection West : Fire : Archive (The Center for Literary Publishing, 2021).  She is currently writing a biography about the author Sanora Babb which will be published by the University of California Press, 2024. Dunkle lives in Northern California and teaches at Napa Valley College and UC Davis.  She is the Poetry and Translation Director at the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference.