AnnElise Hatjakes holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Missouri. She also holds an MFA degree in fiction and an MA in writing from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she currently works as a teaching assistant professor. Her stories have been shortlisted for the Neil Shepard Prize in Fiction and the Curt Johnson Prize. Her work has also appeared in journals including Juked, Bull, Tahoma Literary Review, and Typehouse, among others. She is currently completing revisions on her novel and short story collection. Her creative and scholarly works centers on place-based writing with an emphasis on writing the American West.