Fried earned her undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College. Her writing career began with journalism positions with a few Philadelphia papers. She’d written poetry here and there for personal enjoyment over the years, but it was her experience writing under deadlines that encouraged her to produce  poetry on a consistent and professional level. Fried has written three collections of poetry: She Didn’t Mean to Do It (2000), My Brother Is Getting Arrested Again (2006), and Women's Poetry: Poems and Advice (2013). Her journalistic and poetry endeavors have won her numerous respected awards, including the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize (1999), the National Book Critics Circle Award (2007), and the Poetry Editor’s Award (2009). She currently teaches in the Warren Wilson College Low-Residency MFA program and lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.