Dana Levin grew up in California's Mojave Desert. Her first book won the APR/Honickman First Book Prize and PEN/Osterweil Award. Other awards include a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, two Pushcart Prizes, and a Lannan Fellowship. She was recently selected by Louise Gluck as a 2004 Witter Bynner Fellow. Levin lives and teaches in Santa Fe.