Ilse Munro is a federal government consultant (NASA, Defense Department) turned writer. She is working on a short story collection and a novel (Cold and Hungry and Far From Home, Anna Noon) and serves as outreach coordinator for the Little Patuxent Review and the Oella Community Garden, which she co-founded. Born in Latvia, she came to the United States as a five-year-old war refugee. She now resides in a historic millworker’s house on the Patapsco River.