Dr. Deidra Dees is the second-place winner of the Native Voices Award, a member of the Mvskoke nation, and descends from Hotvlkvlke (Wind Clan). She grew up picking cotton on a rural Alabama farm, where her ancestors lived. Dr. Dees is a Cornell and Harvard graduate and the published author of Vision Lines: Native American Decolonizing Literature. Dr. Dees currently serves as Director/Tribal Archivist at the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and teaches Native American Studies at the University of South Alabama.