Thylias Moss was born in 1954, in Cleveland, Ohio, to a multiracial (African American, Native American, Indian, Caucasian) father and an African American mother. She is the author of many poetry collections, including Wannabe Hoochie Mama Gallery of Realities Red Dress Code: New & Selected Poems (Persea, 2016), as well as a memoir, Tale of a Sky-Blue Dress, and a children’s book, I Want to Be. She is a two-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry, and the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation, among other honors. She is Professor Emerita in the Department of English and the College of Art & Design at the University of Michigan.