Lauren K. Alleyne was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. In 1997, she left home to study Radiologic Science and Nuclear Medical Technology at St. Francis College, in NY. However, in her junior year, she became an English major, and went on to graduate with honors with a BA in English. She went on to earn an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Iowa State University, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Cornell University, where she also completed a Graduate Certificate in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Alleyne's fiction, poetry and non-fiction has been widely published in journals and anthologies, and has been awarded several prizes, such as the Small Axe Literary Prize and a Lyrical Iowa Award, among others. Her first collection of poetry, Difficult Fruit, will be published in February 2014 Lauren is currently the Poet-in-Residence and an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Dubuque in Dubuque, IA