Martha O'Connor was born in Illinois in a town in, as William H. Gass put it, "the heart of the heart of the country." At age fifteen she transformed from a shy goody two-shoes to a juvenile delinquent. Donning her Army trench coat, ripped fishnets, and combat boots, she often skipped school to head into Chicago to cause trouble, dye her hair purple, or hang out at The Alley. Once she cut classes to attend a seminar with Chilean novelist Antonio Skarmeta, whose Burning Patience, a novel about Pablo Neruda, was later made into the film Il Postino. She didn't read any work by Neruda at the time, but Skarmeta had ignited what was to become a lifelong interest in the Chilean poet. Martha's shady character got her kicked out of the National Honor Society, although she was asked back in when she was named a National Merit Scholar, among only 1/10 of 1% of high school seniors. She traded one small town for another when she went to Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where she experimented with hair colors, piercings, politics and of course fiction. Near graduation, Martha reached a crossroads. Her heart was torn between becoming a labor organizer-(she was invited several times to apply for Union Summer, a program sponsored by the AFL-CIO)-and becoming a writer. At the peak of her frustrations, she discovered the poet Pablo Neruda, whom she remembered from her conversation with Antonio Skarmeta five years before. After inhaling Neruda's poetry, she was awed by his life story and was particularly moved by his words from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: "Lastly, I wish to say to the people of good will, to the workers, to the poets, that the whole future has been expresses in this line by Rimbaud: 'Only with a burning patience can we conquer the splendid City, which will give light, justice, and dignity to all mankind.'" Poetry and politics were united in this one great poet, who remains Martha's favorite writer. Martha finished her time at Bowling Green by becoming the Undergraduate Representative to the Creative Writing Committee and organizing a protest at an English Department meeting when the Program's funding was threatened. She completed her BFA in Creative Writing with a minor in History, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Soon after graduation she married award-winning novelist Phil O'Connor, founder and director of the Creative Writing Program. They moved to San Francisco, where Martha worked at an academic publishing company. The miscast Martha was miserable there, frustrated by budget cuts, layoffs, and endless chasing down of author checks. (She once composed a poem to the CEO titled "Ode to a Lost Check Requisition" and presented it to him on electric pink paper. Needless to say, she didn't get any promotions.) After giving birth to twins, teaching eighth grade in Marin County, and publishing work in Stand, Confrontation, Midwest Poetry Review, and many others, Martha began writing THE BITCH POSSE as a love letter to all the girls who never quite fit in. These days, she divides her time among juvenile diabetes advocacy (her son was diagnosed in July 2004), watching her daughter in plays, and writing her next novel. Stay tuned!