LuAnn Keener-Mikenas is a writer and poet born in 1954. She has an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. She won the 2014 Library of Virginia Award for her poetry collection, Homeland, and a 1990 Virginia Prize for the manuscript of her first collection, Color Documentary. Her work has also appeared in numerous journals such as Poetry, Shenandoah, Quarterly West, Chelsea, New Orleans Review, and Louisiana Literature, along with several anthologies and even a textbook. Her other honors include the Writers at Work Prize for Poetry from Quarterly West, Chelsea’s 1st Place Award for Poetry, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award for Poetry, and the Americas Review Prize for Poetry, as well as fellowships at MacDowell and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Keener’s poetry has been increasingly concerned with the environmental crisis and the relationship between human beings and the natural world. She has also taught English at Virginia Tech, worked intensively as a clinical social worker, held a private practice as a therapist, worked as a member of the counseling staff at Randolph College, and acted as a resource social worker for Centra Hospice. She currently lives in Virginia with her musician husband.
Portrait by Patti Finn Rapiejko
