A native New Englander, CarlaJean Valluzzi earned her BFA at Massachusetts College of Art and an MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts at the University of Baltimore. A poet and artist, she worked for a decade at The Ivy Bookshop before joining the Waldorf School of Baltimore as Head Substitute. She is Senior Poetry Editor/Chapbook Designer at JMWW. A love of nature was instilled long before the words came, followed closely by an observant eye on the world at large. A love of reading was nurtured atop stacks of newspapers in the folded-down back seat of an old station wagon as Gram delivered along a rural route. She loves books, gardening, museums, coffee, cats, and learning every day from each gift of interaction she is met with!