Lina ramona Vitkauskas (Lithuanian-American-Canadian) has lived in Chicago for most of her life and is fascinated by old films and theaters, astronomy, retinas (after nearly going blind), comedy, Surrealism and dreams, and genealogy. In 1998, she lived in Lithuania for several months to complete her graduate thesis--post-workshop with recent National Book Award Winner Nikky Finney. In 2009, Pulitzer-finalist Brenda Hillman selected her for The Poetry Center of Chicago's Juried Reading Award. She is the author of HONEY IS A SHE (Plastique Press, April 2012), THE RANGE OF YOUR AMAZING NOTHING (Ravenna Press, 2010), and Failed Star Spawns Planet/Star (dancing girl press, 2006). With poet Larry Sawyer, she is co-editor of the long-running online literary magazine milk magazine, which has featured Robert Creeley, Michael McClure, Ron Padgett, Wanda Coleman, and many others. She's been featured in Ugly Duckling Presse's Emergency INDEX, the anthology THE CITY VISIBLE: CHICAGO POETRY FOR THE NEW CENTURY (Cracked Slab Books, 2007), and published in White Fungus (New Zealand/Taiwan; currently on display at MoMA), The Prague Literary Review, TriQuarterly, The Toronto Quarterly, VAN GOGH'S EAR (Paris), and many others. She is a faculty member at the new Chicago School of Poetics.
