STEVEN RATINER is a poet, essayist, editor, and educator. He is the Poet Laureate Emeritus for Arlington, MA, and was recently elected as President of the New England Poetry Club, one of the oldest literary associations in America. His new poetry collection, Grief’s Apostrophe, will be issued by Beltway Editions in 2025. He’s previously published three poetry chapbooks and been included in numerous anthologies. His writing frequently appears in journals in America and abroad including Parnassus, Agni, Hanging Loose, Poet Lore, Salamander, QRLS (Singapore), HaMusach (Israel), and Poetry Australia. He’s also written poetry criticism for The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Giving Their Word – Conversations with Contemporary Poets (University of Massachusetts Press) features interviews with many of contemporary poetry’s most acclaimed figures. His Laureate project––the weekly Red Letter Poems––is now in its fifth year and presents a diverse range of poets, from up-and-coming talents to some of the most important voices from America and abroad.