HOPE COULTER’s books include the short story collection Rumors of Peace (Cornerstone 2026) and the poetry collection The Wheel of Light (BrickHouse Books 2015). Among the honors her writing has received are Meringoff Writing Awards in nonfiction and poetry and the Porter Prize for Literary Excellence. Hope, a native of Louisiana, earned her bachelor’s degree at Harvard University and her MFA at Queens University of Charlotte. She retired in 2025 from Hendrix College, where for many years she taught English and creative writing and directed the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language. She lives in Little Rock.