Eileen Murphy taught Advanced Placement English Literature and Creative Writing at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago. She has worked as a program associate at Facing History and Ourselves, providing professional development for teachers, and as an editor at McDougal Littell. Her students became the Illinois state finalists in each of the first two years of Poetry Out Loud, the National Poetry Recitation contest. She is on leave for the year, raising four larger (often louder) creative projects.