Betsy Mars is an educator and poet who was profoundly influenced by the two years her family lived in Brazil as a child. Her love for travel, foreign languages, and learning about other cultures seems to stem from that time. Although she was born in Connecticut, Betsy has spent most of her life in Southern California, where she is, she says, "overly involved with her adult children and animals, and yearns to travel while shrinking everyone she loves so they can come along in her carry-on bag." Betsy's work has appeared in numerous online journals, several anthologies, and in the California Quarterly. She anticipates that her first chapbook will be available in February, "if she can curb her social media and communication addictions." Learn more about Betsy at https://marsmyst.wordpress.com/.