Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, where they teach in and direct the UMass Boston MFA in Creative Writing Program. They are the author of four poetry collections, including Travesty Generator, winner of the 2018 Noemi Press Poetry Prize and finalist for the National Poetry Series, and But a Storm is Blowing From Paradise, chosen by Claudia Rankine as the winner of the 2010 Benjamin Saltman Award. Bertram has published poetry, prose, and essays in numerous journals; their honors include a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, finalist nomination for the 2013 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and fellowships to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and Cave Canem, among others.