about the author

Now a semiretired physician/geriatrician, Judy Bertelsen earned her BA with honors in English and political science from U.C. Berkeley, her PhD in political science from the University of Oregon, and her MD from Brown University. She has made her living as a professor of political science and, after completing medical school, a primary care physician. She grew up on a farm in the central valley of California; her current yard’s soil is native clay (deposited eons ago by an ancient river) from which she built a small earth oven, which is put into service making wood-fired sourdough pizza. She has attended Tin House Writer’s Workshop from 2009-2012, Surprise Valley Writers’ Conference from 2008-2011, and Yosemite Writers Conference in 2007, where she was awarded first prize for her poetry. Her work has appeared in the Kabita Campus Poetry Collection.