Candace Black grew up in southern California, often on U.S. Marine Corps bases. As a graduate student at the University of Montana, she studied with Richard Hugo and Madeline DeFrees. Her books of poetry include The Volunteer, Whereabouts, and the chapbook Casa Marina. Her nonfiction has appeared in several journals, including Pinyon, Great River Review, and War, Literature and the Arts. Awards for her work include the Thomas A. Wilhelmus Award, the Poets on Parnassus Poetry Prize, a McKnight Foundation Individual Fellowship, and a Loft-McKnight Award for Poetry. She teaches creative writing at Minnesota State University Mankato.