A native of North Augusta and current resident of Florence, Jo Angela Edwins has published poems in over 100 journals and anthologies. She is author of the collection A Dangerous Heaven (2023, Gnashing Teeth) and the chapbooks Play (2016, Finishing Line), and Bitten (2025, dancing girl). She is a Pushcart Prize, Forward Prize, Bettering American Poetry, and Best of the Net nominee and has received awards from Winning Writers, Poetry Super Highway, the Jasper Project, and the SC Academy of Authors. She has served on the boards of SC Humanities, the South Carolina Academy of Authors, the Poetry Society of South Carolina, and Pee Dee Equality and was named the 2024-25 Distinguished Professor of Francis Marion University, where she has taught for 22 years. She is the inaugural poet laureate of the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.