Virginia Shreve has lived in many places, including Minnesota, New Jersey, and Budapest, but for the past few decades has made her home in the small river town of Collinsville, CT, with husband and dogs, none well-trained, but all good-natured. She started writing poetry because she did not want to write a term paper about poetry. Things sort of pin-balled from there. She received a scholarship for her writing, then worked in Poets in the Schools while in graduate school at Indiana University. Over the years, in between being stopped by the Hungarian Secret Police and their very serious Alsatian sporting a wire cage over his immense noggin while walking at midnight sans passport, but sadly, avec her cousin’s cantankerous and mouthy Lhaso Apso; and finding herself unexpectedly perched upon the twitching shoulders of an acrobatic comedian riding a 5-foot unicycle on a stage on a cruise ship in the rolling North Sea, she wrote and edited numerous regional newsletters, much dog humor, a catalogue devoted solely to corrugated office products, and yes, poetry. The latter has been published in a variety of journals and anthologies, including the Southern Poetry Review, Slippery Elm, Naugatuck River Review (1^st prize 2015 contest, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize), Phantom Drift, Crucible, Local Gems Poetry Press’ Goddess, BEAT-itude, and NW CT Poets, and online at Your Daily Poem. She has participated and performed at many Word Art and Spoken Word events, and poetry readings, in libraries, art galleries, theaters, barrooms, doctors’ offices, alleys, and outdoors in rain and sun and dark of night.