Eileen Myles was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was educated in Catholic schools, they dedicated their first collection to her mother, Genowefa Petronela Pierscieniewicz. They gave their first reading at CBGB's and then gravitated to St. Mark's church where they studied with Ted Berrigan, Alice Notley, and Bill Zavatsky. They have published more than a dozen volumes of poetry and fiction including Not Me (1991), Chelsea Girls (1994), Cool for You (2000), and Skies (2001). Recent books include Sorry, Tree (2007), The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art (2009), and Inferno: A Poet's Novel (2010), Afterglow: A Dog Memoir (2017), and evolution (2018).