M. L. SMOKER belongs to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana. She holds an MFA from the University of Montana in Missoula, where she was the recipient of the Richard Hugo Memorial Scholarship. Her first collection of poems, Another Attempt at Rescue, was published by Hanging Loose Press in the spring of 2005. In 2009 she co-edited an anthology of human rights poetry with Melissa Kwasny entitled I Go to the Ruined Place. She has also won a regional Emmy Award for her work as a writer and consultant on the PBS documentary Indian Relay. M. L. Smoker currently resides in Helena, Montana, where she works for the Office of Public Instruction as the director of Indian education.