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Dawne Leiker graduated from FHSU with a BS in Political Science (concentration Public Administration) and an MLS in Social Sciences (concentration in Journalism and Public Relations).

A former journalist, Ms. Leiker has also worked as a newspaper advertising executive. She writes short stories, poetry and performing arts reviews, and serves on local boards and committees, including the Center for Life Experiences.

This is Dawne Leiker's first published book of poetry. She has

written for newspapers and for academia and is currently working

on a messy fantasy novel. She has lived most of her life in western

Kansas, not so far away from her great-grandparents' homesteads.

Poems in the collection focus on Dawne Leiker's great-grandparents who homesteaded in Rawlins County in the 1880s and the persistence of her western Kansas family and friends.