Twila Newey is a certified California Naturalist with a deep love for California’s native flora. She’s worked at Larner Seeds as a seed gatherer and gardener, interned at The Watershed Nursery, and is currently volunteering with the native plant restoration project at Glen Cove Waterfront Park. Her ongoing education in California Native Plant communities and ecology involves extensive walking, photography, and reading. She also planted, tends, and gathers seed from her own regional habitat garden.

Twila writes as well. She earned a B.A. in English with a minor in Anthropology from Brigham Young University and an M.F.A. in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University. She is the author of the novel Sylvia published by BCC Press. Twila was a finalist for the Coniston Prize at Radar Poetry and won honorable mention in Juxtaprose Poetry Contest. Her poems can be found in various literary journals online and in print. She lives in with her husband and four children in Benicia, CA.