Jonathan Travelstead served in the Air Force for six years as a firefighter and he currently works as a full-time City firefighter in Murphysboro, Illinois. He also sculpts jewelry as a goldsmith under his business name, Travelstead Studios. He has a wife and infant son, without whose support his work would surely süer. He received his MFA in narrative poetry in Illinois, and worked as poetry editor for Expressions, Grassroots, and, most recently, Cobalt Press. His work has been published in numerous literary journals and won a number of prizes, not the least of which were the Roxana Rivera Memorial Poetry Contest, and the Gwendolyn Brooks Emerging Writers Competition chosen by poet laureate Kevin Stein.His first collection HOW WE BURY OUR DEAD by Cobalt Press was released in March, 2015, and CONFLICT TOURS (Cobalt Press) was released in 2017.