About

Helena Mesa is the author of Where Land Is Indistinguishable from Sea (Terrapin Books) and Horse Dance Underwater (Cleveland State University Poetry Center). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in various literary journals such as The Adroit Journal, Barrow Street, Bat City Review, Cimarron Review, Indiana Review, Pleiades, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, and Third Coast.  She has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences, and Writers in the Heartland; she was also a UMS artist in residence (2015-2016).

She is also a co-editor for Mentor & Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010), an anthology of essays that examines poetic techniques. In 2018, Helena Mesa, Blas Falconer, and Beth Martinelli launched Mentor and Muse online, providing teachers, readers, and poets more access to the project.

A Cuban American, born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mesa earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland (1997), and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston (2003). A Professor at Albion College, she lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.