Constance Hanstedt

was born in the Midwest earning a bachelor’s degree in English and Secondary Education from the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee. After moving to California, she was co-owner and CFO of a general contracting business in Pleasanton.

It wasn't until after her father died in 1993 that Constance discovered the healing power of poetry. Her award-winning poems have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Calyx, The Comstock Review, Naugatuck River Review, Rattle, Porter Gulch Review, Red Wheelbarrow, and the California Writers Club Literary Review, and in the book The Crafty Poet, A Portable Workshop by Diane Lockward in 2013. 

She is also the author of Don’t Leave Yet, How My Mother’s Alzheimer’s Opened My Heart (She Writes Press, 2015), which was named a finalist in the memoir category at the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference in 2011, and a finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards in 2015.

Constance currently lives in Livermore, California. She is a member of the California Writers Club Tri-Valley Branch, leading the Poetry Critique Group and serving on the Executive Board.