Dian Duchin Reed was educated at the University of Chicago and New York University. She has won the Mary Lonnberg Smith Award in Poetry, a Sundberg Family grant for literary criticism, the Mel Tuohey Award for writing excellence, and an APEX Award for technical writing.
She has worked as a photojournalist (with articles and photographs in such magazines as American Forests, National Geographic World, and Garden Design) and a technical writer (for companies like Becton Dickinson and Johnson & Johnson). Her recent poems and essays have appeared in North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Nimrod International Journal, Poetry East, Poet Lore, The Nation, Toastmaster, and many other journals. Her poetry chapbook, Medusa Discovers Styling Gel, was published by Finishing Line Press in December 2009.
A student of the Dao De Jing and practitioner of taiji quan for over three decades, she has studied Chinese and is a member of the Center for Taoist Thought and Fellowship. Dao De Jing: Laozi’s Timeless Wisdom is her fresh translation from the Chinese text. Twenty-five hundred years after it was written, the Dao De Jing still has the ability to inspire, with startling insights into human nature and the mysterious workings of the universe. Readers comparing translations will enjoy the rich beauty of this one.
She lives and writes within walking distance of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.