As the daughter of Afro-Cuban political exiles from the Bay of Pigs era, Myrna Amelia Mesa is a first generation American and a native of Chicago.  She received her B.A. from Loyola University Chicago, a J.D. from The University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, Michigan and she expects to graduate with an MFA in Creative Writing from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia in 2008.  Currently, Myrna is a practicing attorney in Orlando, Florida and also serves as a Judge Advocate officer in the United States Army Reserve.  In February 2007, the Virginia Poet Laureate, Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, featured Myrna’s poems in her Poet’s Spotlight Page.  Her poems, "Cuban War Letters" and "All I Know About My Grandmother, Guillermina" won First Place in the 2008 Poetry Society of Virginia-Old Dominion University sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.  Her poems, "In the Year of the Rooster" and "Tiny Deaths" were Finalists for the 2007 Rita Dove Poetry Prize and her chapbook, "Traveling Stones," was selected as a Finalist in the Červená Barva Press 2006 Poetry Chapbook contest; she has also received an Honorable Mention for her essay, "Actin’ Like You Know: Black Women Rappers and Hip Hop Feminism."  She recently presented a paper on "Inheriting Exile, Manifesting Race: the Afro-Cuban Literary Voice in the United States" at the Writing Race Conference sponsored by the College English Association, Caribbean Chapter, at University of Puerto Rico in February 2008.  Myrna is currently completing a collection of poetry on her Afro-Cuban ancestry.