LAYNIE BROWNE was born in 1966, and grew up in Los Angeles. She received a B.A. in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley in 1988, and an M.F.A. from Brown University in 1990. She received a fellowship from the MacDowell Colony in 1992, and was awarded the Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative American Poetry three times between 1993 and 1996. She lives in Seattle.