Joseph Hutchison, Poet Laureate of Colorado (2014-2019), directs the Professional Creative Writing, Arts & Culture, and Global Community Engagement programs for University College at the University of Denver. He is the author of 19 collections of poems, including Eyes of the Cuervo/Ojos Del Crow (a bilingual edition of his Mexico poems translated by Patricia Herminia), The World As Is: New & Selected Poems, 1972-2015, Marked Men, Thread of the Real, Bed of Coals (winner of the Colorado Poetry Award), and the Colorado Governor’s Award volume, Shadow-Light. He has also translated Ephemeral, a collection of flash fictions by Mexican author Miguel Lupián. His poems have appeared in over 100 journals and several anthologies, including New Poets of the American West, and he has co-edited two anthologies, Malala: Poems for Malala Yousafzai (all profits benefit the Malala Fund for girls' education worldwide) and A Song for Occupations: Poems About the American Way of Work.

Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Joe graduated from the University of Northern Colorado and earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. For most of his adult life he made his living as a commercial writer and editor, while teaching writing and literature courses for a variety of institutions at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He lives with his wife, Iyengar yoga instructor Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver.