Patricia McKernon Runkle holds a BA in psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a
master’s degree in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School. She also writes music and lyrics; three of her collaborative choral works have been published by Boosey & Hawkes. For fifteen years, she worked as a freelance writer and editor. When not writing, she volunteers at a grief support center, and she has also directed a choir. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in Frogpond, Modern Haiku, and the New Jersey anthologies The Final Lilt of Songs and Off Line. She has studied with poets Deborah Keenan and Susan Deborah King.