Lia Purpura’s recent books include On Looking (essays, Sarabande Books), a Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and King Baby (poems, Alice James Books), winner of the Beatrice Hawley Award. Her awards include the AWP Award in Nonfiction, the OSU Prize in Poetry, NEA and Fulbright Fellowships, two Pushcart prizes, and five "Notable Essay" citations in Best American Essays. Recent work appears in Agni, Field, The Georgia Review, Orion, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review. She is Writer in Residence at Loyola University, Baltimore, MD and teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA Program. What’s defunct in her life? “Factory-farmed meat.”