Dr. Piatt's poems have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of Web awards, and his poems were published in The 100 Best Poems Analogies of 2014 and 2015. He has been honored with many awards for his poetry and has been the featured poet in many magazines. He has published over 850 poems in 90 different poetry magazines, anthologies, and poetry books. He was born in Santa Maria, California and graduated from Santa Maria High School. He earned his BS and MA from California State Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo, and earned his doctorate from BYU. He lives in Santa Ynez, California, just 30 miles from the mountains to the south and 30 miles from the ocean to the west. He has two children, Ann Kathleen, a spiritual/meditation consultant in Santa Maria, and Wallace, an artist in Santa Barbara. He has one grandchild, James Robert Mullen. He has been married to his wife, critic, and muse, Sandy, for 60 years. She has been his inspiration to write poetry.