Trapeta B. Mayson is a dynamic poet, workshop leader and educator. She has worked extensively with young people and adults in educational, artistic and institutional settings conducting poetry and creative writing workshops. She has received numerous literary awards and fellowships including a 2002 Pew Fellowship, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Grants, 2007 Leeway Transformation Award and a 2014 Leeway Art and Change grant. Trapeta is a Cave Canem and Callaloo Fellow and has completed residencies at schools, community agencies and artistic institutions. Her chapbook, She Was Once Herself, was released in 2012. Trapeta’s other publications include submissions in The American Poetry Review; Aesthetica Creative Works Annual Review; Margie; The American Journal of Poetry; and Lavanderia, Anthology of Women Writing, to name a few. She is a native of Liberia and grew up in Philadelphia. Trapeta is a licensed clinical social worker. She has also earned her MBA and has worked for years in the human services field and with artistic and cultural institutions. Trapeta is a graduate of Temple University, Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and Villanova University School of Business.