Alyssa A. Lappen, a retired U.S. journalist and award-winning poet, is author of The Minstrel's Song (Cross-Cultural Communications, April 2015), published in honor of National Poetry Month. She has read and spoken at dozens of venues. Her poetry has appeared in dozens of collections and journals, including Wales' renowned The Seventh Quarry: Swansea Poetry Magazine. She won the 2000 annual Ruah: A Journal of Spiritual Poetry chapbook award and received a Harvard Summer Poetry Prize and several honorable mentions.