LAURA JENSEN was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1948. She received degrees from The University of Washington and The University of Iowa, where she attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Washington State Arts Commission the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the Reader's Digest Fund. Ms. Jensen has published seven collections of poems including Bad Boats, Memory, and Shelter.