Poet and linguistic anthropologist Karenne Wood grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC. She earned an MFA at George Mason University and a PhD in anthropology at the University of Virginia, where she was a Ford Fellow. In her poems, she often explores themes of identity, cultural practice, and language within portraits of historical and contemporary Virginia Indians. An enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation, Wood served on the Monacan Tribal Council and directs the Virginia Indian Programs at the Virginia Center for the Humanities.