Joanne Grumet was born in New York City and got her degrees in Linguistics from Queens College, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and New York University. She was a lexicographer and worked on dictionaries for Funk and Wagnalls and Random House. She taught Linguistics at New York University and Montclair State University and Writing at the City University of New York. Her poems have been published in The Poetry Quarterly, The Same, and Jewish Women's Literary Annual, as well as online at BigCityLit.com. In addition, her poetry is in the archives of the Brooklyn Museum. Joanne also writes songs, and she and her music and poetry have been featured on the cable tv show The Song, out of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Her songs can be heard at www.reverbnation.com/summerwind