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M.J. Iuppa, Director of the Visual and Performing Arts Minor Program (2004-2021), Writer-in-Residence (1999-2015), and Lecturer in Creative Writing at St. John Fisher College (1997-2021). She retired from St. John Fisher in August, 2021. From 2000 to present, she continues to teach as a Part-time Lecturer in Creative Writing at SUNY Brockport. Since 1986 to present, she has been a teaching artist, working with students, K-12, in Rochester, NY, and surrounding area. She has four full-length poetry collections; most recently This Thirst (Kelsay Books, 2017); Small Worlds Floating (2016) as well as Within Reach (2010) both from Cherry Grove Collections; Night Traveler (Foothills Publishing, 2003); and 5 chapbooks, most recent is Between Worlds (Foothills Publishing, 2013), which is a collection of lyric essays, flash fiction and prose poems. Her fifth full-length collection, The Weight of Air, is forthcoming from Kelsey Books, May 2022; and a chapbook of twenty-four 100-word stories, Rock. Paper. Scissors. was recently accepted by Foothills Publishing. She received Writers and Books' The Big Pencil Award, honoring her lifelong contributions to Rochester's Literary Community. At St. John Fisher College, she has received the Part-Time Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence, May 2000; The Father Dorsey Award, 2000-2001 and 2002-2003, and a Certification of Recognition from The Monroe County Legislature, April 2003. Most recently awarded the New York State Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching, 2017. She served as the poetry advisor for New York State Foundation for the Arts, 2007-2012. She and her husband Peter Tonery live on a small farm in Hamlin NY, where they have been practicing organic food sustainability for the past 21 years.