Jill Ann Coyle grew up in the Pocono mountains region of northeastern Pennsylvania where she developed a close affinity for nature, as well as a love for reading and writing. Jill left PA to attend College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts where she earned a BA in Classics. She then moved to the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina where she completed a PhD in Classical Studies at Duke University. She later added an MA in English from North Carolina State University.

Jill currently lives on the southern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in upstate South Carolina and is a Professor of English at Spartanburg Methodist College. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, traveling, reading, yoga, nature photography, and poetry. Jill’s favorite poets include Gary Snyder, David Lee, Mary Oliver, Jane Kenyon, Theodore Roethke, and Billy Collins. Her own poems have been published in Blueline, Avocet, Main Street Rag, The Independent Weekly, Pinesong, Raleigh Review, When Women Waken, and Emrys Journal. Jill was awarded the Hub City Emrys Poetry Prize twice: in 2015 for her poem “Walker Creek” and in 2017 for her poem “Communion.”