Denise Heinze, a former literature professor and a PhD graduate of Duke University, writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She is the author of The Dilemma of Double-Consciousness: Toni Morrison’s Novels and the eco-thriller Sally St. Johns. Her work has appeared in Now and Then, Thought and Action, Reunions, Wow! Women on Writing, THEMA literary journal, and Gemini Magazine. Her debut historical fiction, The Brief and True Report of Temperance Flowerdew, was a finalist for the University of New Orleans Press Publishing Lab Prize. A descendant of Louisa May Alcott, she lives in North Carolina.