ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Martha Modena Vertreace-Doody is Distinguished Professor of English and Poet-in-Residence at Kennedy-King College, Chicago IL. Her several books include: Second House from the Corner, Under a Cat's-Eye Moon, Oracle Bones, Cinnabar, Smokeless Flame, Kelly in the Mirror, Maafa: When Night Becomes a Lion, Dragon Lady: Tsukimi, Glacier Fire, and Light Caught Bending and Second Mourning, published by Diehard Publishers, Edinburgh, through Scottish Arts Council grants.

Named the Glendora Review Poet, Lagos, Nigeria, she was twice a Fellow at the Hawthornden International Writers' Retreat in Scotland. Eastern Washington University chose her as Poetry Fellow in residence at the Writers Center, Dublin, Ireland. She was a Fellow at St. Deiniol's Library, Hawarden, Wales, on a bursary.

She has poems in Illinois Voices: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Poetry (University of Illinois Press, 2001). Her most recent Pushcart nomination was for "When Pockets Held Dreams", published in After Hours: the Chicago Journal of Writing and Art. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Tim, and their cats, Bon-Bon, Fred, and Patrick Samuel.