Jane Varley

Born in Dubuque, Iowa, poet and nonfiction writer Jane Varley earned a BA and an MA at the University of Idaho and a PhD at the University of North Dakota. Often steeped in a midwestern landscape, Varley’s poems linger at intersections, marking the ways new life arises from loss.

Varley’s poetry has been reprinted in the New York Times and in former US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” syndicated newspaper column. She is the author of the memoir recounting the 1997 Nebraska flood, Flood Stage and Rising (2005). The recipient of an individual artist grant from the Ohio Arts Council, Varley lives in Ohio, where she coordinates the creative writing program at Muskingum College.