Born and raised in Los Angeles, Michelle Bitting studied theater at U.C. Berkeley and was a modern dancer and chef before marrying actor Phil Abrams and giving birth to their two children. She has work published or forthcoming in The American Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, Narrative, Nimrod, Rattle, River Styx, Crab Orchard Review, Passages North, Linebreak, diode, Anti--, the L.A. Weekly and others. Poems have appeared on Poetry Daily and as the Weekly Featured Poet on Verse Daily. In 2007, Thomas Lux chose her full-length manuscript, Good Friday Kiss, as the winner of the DeNovo First Book Award and C & R Press published it in 2008. Her book Notes to the Beloved, won the 2011 Sacramento Poetry Center Award and will be published in 2012. Recently, Michelle won the Beyond Baroque Foundation Award and she has won the Rock & Sling Virginia Brendemuehl Award and Glimmer Train Poetry Open. She has also been a finalist for the Poets & Writers California Exchange contest and Rona Jaffe Foundation Awards. Michelle has taught poetry in the U.C.L.A. Extension Writer's Program, at Twin Towers prison with a grant from Poets & Writers Magazine and is proud to be an active California Poet in the Schools. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Pacific University, Oregon. Visit her at: www.michellebitting.com