Merle Geode is a queer, non-binary poet, writer, multidisciplinary artist, and shamanic practitioner living with metastatic breast cancer and a hot mess of other human conditions. They often use ritual and trance as generative—and healing—processes to give stories containers in many forms. Their work explores grief, chaos/disruption, and messy embodiment. In fall 2019, they began their MFA in Poetry at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. They are a former food writer, dog groomer, and Loft Literary Center Mirrors & Windows Fellow. They are currently working on a picture book about anticipatory grief and death.