Leslie Scalapino teaches at Mills College and is a former faculty member at Milton Avery Graduate Program of the Arts at Bard College, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. Among her many books are Day Ocean State of Star's Night: Poems and Writings 1989 and 1999-2006, Dahlia's Iris: Secret Autobiography and Fiction, and Zither and Autobiography.