Irene O’Garden has won or been nominated for prizes in nearly every writing category from stage to e-screen, hardcovers, as well as literary magazines and anthologies. Her critically-acclaimed play Women On Fire, (Samuel French) played sold-out houses at Off-Broadway’s Cherry Lane Theatre and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award. O’Garden won a Pushcart Prize for her lyric essay “Glad To Be Human,” (Untreed Reads.) Harper published her first memoir Fat Girl; her second, Risking the Rapids: How My Wilderness Adventure Healed My Childhood is forthcoming from Mango (January 31, 2019) O’Garden’s poems and essays have been featured in dozens of literary journals and award-winning anthologies. Fulcrum (Nirala, 2017) is her first poetry collection. Irene is also a Poetry Educator with the Hudson Highlands chapter of the national River Of Words program, connecting children to nature via poetry and art. Her latest children's book, Forest What Would You Like (Holiday House) grew out of this work. Harper published her other two children's books. Maybe My Baby sold over 90,000 copies, and The Scrubbly Bubbly Car Wash won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Book Award. She and her husband writer John Pielmeier have lived joyfully together for over 40 years. Irene loves words, those who craft them and those who give time to reading them. Which would be you. Thanks.