Patricia Murphy earned Bachelor's degrees in English and French literature from Miami University, and an MFA in Poetry from Arizona State University where she has been teaching writing for 16 years. Her work has appeared in many literary journals, including The Iowa Review, Quarterly West, and American Poetry Review. Her work has received awards from the Associated Writing Programs and the Academy of American Poets, Glimmer Train Press, The GSU Review, and The Southern California Review. Her most recent manuscript of poems, Obligatorium, was a finalist at Four Way Books. In 2008 she was awarded an Arizona Commission on the Arts Project grant. In 2009 she won a Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Student Mentoring at ASU.