Lois Roma-Deeley, Poet Laureate, Scottsdale, Arizona, is the author of six collections of poetry: Waiting for the Mercy Ship (2025); Like Water in the Palm of My Hand, (2022);  The Short List of Certainties, the Jacopone da Todi Poetry Book Series Award winner (2017); High Notes, a Paterson Poetry Prize finalist (2010); northSight (2006); and Rules of Hunger (2004). She was named 2012-2013 U.S Professor of the Year-Community College by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and CASE. Roma-Deeley is published in numerous anthologies including Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day and Villanelles (Everyman's Library, Pocket Poets Series, 2012). Roma-Deeley has won awards and honors for her poetry. Her poems appear in scores of literary journals in the U.S., Canada and Europe. In collaborations with visual artists on several ekphrasis projects, Roma-Deeley’s poems have been exhibited nationally and internationally. She’s taught creative writing at the graduate and undergraduate levels and has served as creative writing judge at the national, state and local levels. Roma-Deeley holds an MFA from Arizona State University in poetry  where she studied under the direction of Rita Dove, Norman Dubie and Alberto Rios. She holds a Ph.D. with a primary emphasis in poetry from the Union Institute and University. She is Associate Editor of the international poetry journal Presence.  https://www.loisroma-deeley.com/ [2]