Lana Hechtman Ayers, originally from New York, resides in Kirkland, WA where she is a manuscript consultant and writing workshop facilitator. She also publishes the Concrete Wolf Poetry Chapbook Series. She holds a BA in Theoretical Mathematics from City University of New York, an MA in Counseling Psychology from Antioch New England Graduate School, and an MFA in Poetry from New England College. She hopes someday to return to school to study Astrophysics.
Lana fell in love with language at an early age, but her passion for poetry fully ignited in the 3rd grade when her teacher, Mrs. Sarfaty, began reading to the class from Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle...and other modern verse. This book contained the work of such luminaries as Theodore Roethke, Maxine Kumin, Donald Hall John Ciardi, and Dorothy Parker.
Although, she’d been writing poems for many years, it was not until the Spring of 1987 that her life as a poet began. It was then she attended a poetry workshop led by Ottone “Ricky” Riccio at the Boston Center for Adult Education. She entered the classroom with a 2-page “masterpiece” and left with about 5 salvageable lines. She studied with Ricky for over a decade and considers him a mentor in the purest sense: He is able to greet each poet on the threshold of the poem and welcome them in. After Ricky, Lana was fortunate enough to study with equally gifted mentor, Patricia Fargnoli, whose faith in her gave her the courage to pursue an MFA. Lana also credits poet Kate Gleason’s workshops with opening her inner voice.
Lana’s work appears in such journals as The Bitter Oleander, Natural Bridge and Cider Press Review. She is a Pushcart Nominee and has received honors in the 2005 “Discovery”/The Nation Award and the 2006 Rita Dove Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, Love is a Weed, was published in 2006 by Finishing Line Press and she has two full-length books due out this year from Snake Nation Press and D-N Publishing
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