Born in southern Illinois, Baude took her undergraduate degree at San Diego State University. She did her graduate work at the New College of California, where she was influenced by Robert Duncan and other writers in the Bay Area scene of the 80s.

She earned an MA from the New College of California in 1986, an MFA from Mills College in 1989, and then moved briefly to Athens, Greece, then to Paris, France, where she married Laurent Baude (divorced 2008). Influenced by the poets Alice Notley and Douglas Oliver, she published poetry as well as art criticism . She was a frequent contributor to various magazines in the Condé Nast and Meredith Group, under the name of Dawn Kolokithas, Dawn-Michelle Baude and pseudonyms.

During the 1990s, she also lived in Egypt and Lebanon, and gave birth, in 1997, to her son, Alexandre, the same year she received her Diplôme des etudes approndis from the Sorbonne. She joined the faculty in Bard College's year-abroad program at Lacoste School of the Arts where she moved in the art circles of Provence, making friends with poet Gustaf Sobin, artist Curt Asker, composer Anders Hillborg, writer David Ambroise and filmmaker Peter Montagnon.

She has taught at the Université of Paris, the American University of Beirut, Alexandria University (Egypt), John Cabot University (Rome, Italy), and the American University of Paris . She earned her PhD in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2003. In 2007, after 18 years aboard, she returned to the US and makes her home in New York.

Senior Fulbright Award, 2005-06

Poetry

• Finally: A Calendar, Los Angeles: Mindmade Books, 2009
• The Flying House, North Caroline: Free Verse/Parlor Press, 2008
• Through a Membrane / Clouds, Portland: GONG, 2006
• Egypt, Sausalito: The Post-Apollo Press, 2003
• Sunday, Paris: Signum Editions, 2002
• The Beirut Poems, Austin, TX: Skanky Possum Editions, 2001
• Gaffiot Exquis, Paris: Arkadin Press, 1997
• Not Another Haiku, Berkeley: Flit Publications, 1989
• Good Morning, Bob, Berkeley: Flit Publications, 1985

Editorial

• Van Gogh's Ear, an anthology of the arts, Paris: French Connection Press, 2009

Monographs and Essays

• reConnaître: Curt Asker, Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2001
• Notes Toward a New Theory of Pasta, Berkeley: Flit Publications, 1988

Communications

• The Executive Guide to E-mail Correspondence, New York: Career Press, 2009/07
• The Everything Kids Learning French, New York: Adams Media, 2008
• The International Lawyer's Style Sheet, Paris: IBM EMEA, 2002
• Savoir Dire Non (with Marie Haddou), Paris: Flammarion, 1997

Nonfiction

• Lane Lines, A Sampler, Paris: Cahier d’Acropole, 1992
• Tropologue, Berkeley: Poltroon Press, 1986
• Letter From Africa, Bolinas: Evergreen Press , 1984

Fiction

• The Anatolian Tapestry, Berkeley: Flit Publications, 1989
• A Week In The Life Of The Marines, America's Most Elite Fighting Team, Berkeley: Transitional Face, 1988