Rodney Terich Leonard is the author of Sweetgum & Lightning (Four Way Books), winner of the NCPA Gold Award and the Human Relations Indie Book Award, finalist for the National Indie Excellence Award and semi-finalist for The Poetry Society of Virginia Poetry Book Award. He holds degrees from The New School, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and Teachers College Columbia University. An Air Force veteran, he received an MFA from Columbia University. He currently lives in Manhattan.