Lana Hechtman Ayers, originally from New York, resides in Kingston, WA. She runs Night Rain Poetry, which offers poetry editing, a manuscript organization service, and writing and publishing workshops. She publishes the Concrete Wolf Poetry Chapbook Series, the Late Blooms Poetry Postcard Series,  and is Poetry Editor of Crab Creek Review.

 

Lana holds a BA in Mathematics from City University of New York, an MA in Counseling Psychology from Antioch New England Graduate School, and an MFA in Poetry from New England College. She hopes someday to return to school to study Astrophysics.

Lana’s poetry appears in numerous journals, including Bitter Oleander, Cider Press Review, Court Green, ellipsis, Feminist Studies Quarterly, Lynx Eye, Natural Bridge, Poetica, Potomac Review, Rhino, Slant, and Stringtown.

 

Lana's work also has also been anthologized in A Chaos of Angels (Word Walker Press, 2007), Tatoos on Cedar (Washington Poets Association, 2006), Pontoon (Floating Bridge Press, 2005), and Images From Ruin (Poetry Society of New Hampshire, 2002).

 

She is a Hedgebrook alumna, a Jack Straw writer, a Pushcart nominee, and has been awarded honors from the “Discovery”/The Nation competition and the Rita Dove Poetry Prize.

 

Her first full-length book, Dance from Inside My Bones, won the 2006 Violet Reed Haas Award, was published this year by Snake Nation Press, and is nominated for the National Book Award.

 

Her second full-length collection, Chicken Farmer I Still Love You, won D-N Publishing's national manuscript contest.

 

Her new chapbook, What Big Teeth, is due out early 2010 from Kissena Park Press, and her new full-length collection, A New Red, is due out Spring 2010 from Pecan Grove Press. Both tell the true life story of Red Riding Hood.

 

Lana curates a monthly poetry reading series at SoulFood Books in Redmond, WA.