Brandon Courtney was born and raised in Iowa, served four years in the United States Navy (Operation Enduring Freedom), and is a graduate of the MFA program at Hollins University. His poetry is forthcoming or appears in Best New Poets, The Journal, Cream City Review, and 32 Poems, among many others. His book The Grief Muscles is forthcoming from The Sheep Meadow Press. Thrush Press published his chapbook Improvised Devices. He is a graduate student at the University of Chicago.