She is the recipient of several awards including a Pirate's Alley/Faulkner prize for her novel, Four Corners, an Arizona Commission of the Arts Award in Fiction, and the Phoenix's Arts Commission for a collaboration with the artist, Rose Johnson. A single mother, Freund began writing seriously when an English teacher at the community college she began attending classes remarked on her talent. She continued working as a waitress and writing for eighteen years before she was awarded a teaching assistantship as a graduate student in the MFA program at the University of Arizona. She currently lives in the high desert with her partner, the poet, Pat Hawks. Photo by Ike Dent What's this? 