Poet BJ Ward grew up in New Jersey. He earned a BA at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and an MA at Syracuse University. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Gravedigger’s Birthday (2002), a Paterson Poetry Prize finalist; 17 Love Poems With No Despair (1997); and Landing in New Jersey with Soft Hands (1994).

His poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor’s National Public Radio program The Writer’s Almanac, and he has received fellowships from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the Artist/Teacher Institute, as well as a Pushcart Prize. He has taught at the Frost Place Seminar for Young Poets, the New Jersey Governor’s School for the Arts, and Warren County Community College. He lives in New Jersey.