Jan Seale, the 2012 Texas Poet Laureate, is the author of eleven volumes of poetry, two books of short fiction, six books of nonfiction, and several children's books.

Her writing has appeared in magazines and newspapers such as The Yale Review, Texas Monthly, The Chicago Tribune, and Writer’s Digest. Some anthologies including her work are The Southern Poetry Anthology, Quotable Texas Women, Folklore in Motion, Both Sides of the Border, and Birds in the Hand.

In 1982, Seale received a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship in poetry. Seven of her short stories were chosen for P.E.N. Syndicated Fiction awards. Her poetry has received the Kathryn Morris Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of Texas and the Bill Burke Award and Dolly Sprunk Memorial Award from the New York Poetry Forum. Her stories and poems have been broadcast over National Public Radio.

She has taught English and Creative Writing at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, West Texas A&M University, and the University of North Texas. Workshops and readings by Seale have taken place in Washington, Oregon, Oklahoma, North Carolina, New Mexico, and in many Texas cities.

For sixteen years she was the South Texas editor of Texas Books in Review. Other editorial work includes as a founding editor of RiverSedge literary journal and as an editor of The Valley Land Fund pictorial volumes.

Seale was born in Pilot Point, Texas, graduated from Waxahachie High School, attended Baylor University, and received a B.A. from The University of Louisville and an M.A. from North Texas State University.

Seale has served as a Scholar for Humanities Texas and as Artist-in-Education for the Texas Commission on the Arts. Her organization memberships include the Texas Folklore Society, the Poetry Society of Texas, and the Texas Institute of Letters.

Seale lives in McAllen in South Texas. She has three sons and four grandsons.