Kami Westhoff is the author of the short story collection, The Criteria, and four poetry chapbooks: Sacral, winner of the Floating Bridge Chapbook Contest; Sleepwalker, winner of Minerva Rising’s Dare to Be Chapbook Contest; and Your Body a Bullet, a collaboration exploring parasitic relationships with poet Elizabeth Vignali. Her work has appeared in various journals including Booth, Carve, Hippocampus, Fugue, Grist, Passages North, Waxwing, and West Branch. She received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and has taught creative writing at Western Washington University since 2007. Her work explores trauma, grief, and resilience with a focus exploring the most unlikely pockets of beauty and grace. When not engaged in literary endeavors, she enjoys playing soccer, hiking, listening to True Crime and political podcasts, and playing trivia. A lifetime resident of Whatcom County, she lives in Bellingham with her multi-specied family, and dreams of one day having a cat sanctuary.