Denise Thompson-Slaughter is the author of "Elemental: poems of earth, water, fire, air, & spirit" (Plain View Press, 2010). Many of her poems and a few of her nonfiction pieces have appeared in various literary journals. She has worked for many years as an academic or a freelance editor and is currently the managing editor of the quarterly journal Reviews in American History at the University of Rochester. Denise grew up in Maryland and received a B.A. in English from Rutgers University. She became a mother at the age of 41, when she and her husband adopted the first of two babies in the 1990s. She lives in Brighton, New York, with her husband and their two young adult children.