Don Thompson was born in Bakersfield, CA, in 1942, and has spent most of his life in Kern County. He has been publishing poetry since the early sixties, including over a dozen books and chapbooks. Back Roads won the 2008 Sunken Garden Prize. He was the subject of an LA Times profile, "Planted in the San Joaquin." More recently, A San Joaquin Almanac won the Eric Hoffer Award for chapbooks in 2021. He and his wife, Chris, live on her family's farm near Buttonwillow in a house that has been home to four generations. In 2016 he was selected as the first Poet Laureate of Kern County.