Jan Shoemaker is an essayist and poet. She is the author of the essay collection, Flesh and Stones: Field Notes from a Finite World, and the poetry collection, The Reliquary Earth. A recipient of the Greater Lansing United Nation Association’s Loy LaSalle Award for Outstanding Contributions to Global Education and International Understanding, she was also awarded Confrontation Magazine's Poetry Prize. Her work has been featured on public radio, anthologized, and published in many magazines and journals. She lives in Michigan.