Joan Leotta has been playing with words since childhood. She has four novels, a collection of short stories and a picture book in print. She has won awards in the USA and abroad for her writing and performing. Her poetry and essays area in Gnarled Oak, Red Wolf, A Quiet Courage, Eastern Iowa Review, Hobart Literary Review, Silver Birch, Postcard Poems and Prose and others. Her second picture book, Summer in a Bowl, comes out in September 2016 Joan also performs folklore and one-woman shows on historic figures. She lives in Calabash, NC with husband Joe. http://www.joanleotta.wordpress.com

Her poem Short Day, Solstice will be read at The Solstice Shorts Festival 2016: Shortest Day and is in the Shortest Day, Longest Night Anthology.