I'm a former college teacher. I taught English literature and creative writing at Mills College, a great women-only school in Oakland, California, for thirty-two years. I started to write while I was there, at first poetry and then fiction. My students actually got me involved in writing by telling me that if they had to show their work to me I should do the same to them. Writing is very, very important to me. I love doing it; I feel good when I'm working at it and empty and meaningless when I'm not. My wonderful writer-husband was both my first and last love (we were married to each other three times.) And I have two great kids (boys) and two wonderful, bright funny stepkids (one male and one female) plus three grandchildren. We live near San Francisco. I've written five novels and six books of poetry. My first novel was runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize. I think that book, I WISH THIS WAR WERE OVER, is one of my favorites, and for poetry I believe I'd choose SPELLS FOR NOT DYING AGAIN. But, hey, I like them all. In January 2008 I lost my wonderful husband, the writer Mel Fiske, to cancer. I miss him all the time, and my new book is a series of poems rejoicing in him and in the wonderful life we had together. I have moved since his death and have an apartment in San Francisco, where I see as much as possible of my two charming, interesting sons and their children. READ A Q & A WITH DIANA.