Iowa-born author and poet Pat Underwood married and raised two sons in a former mining area northwest of Colfax, IA where the nearby river and abundant wildlife inspired her love of poetry. A former teacher of early education and a graduate of the Des Moines Area Community College, she recently retired from working for the State of Iowa. She is the author of Gatherings (Celestial Light Press), Whisker Tag, and The Last Supper, a play kit by Meriwether Publishing, Ltd. Her distinctions include receiving the Founder's Award in 1996 and 2002 and the Winner's Circle Award in 2009 from the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, being nominated in 2001 for the Pushcart Poetry Prize by The Briar Cliff Review, and being a finalist various times in the Writer's Digest Poetry Competition. She is published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including being a contributor to the Iowa anthology Voices on the Landscape; Contemporary Iowa Poets (Loess Hills Books).
