Garcia, Nicole Caruso: - Nicole Caruso Garcia is an American poet and educator. Born in New Jersey, she was raised there and in Connecticut where she now resides. Educated at Fairfield University, she holds a BA in English and Religious Studies. After seven years in the corporate sector, she earned her MS in Education from the University of Bridgeport and taught English at Trumbull High School for fifteen years. Garcia serves as associate poetry editor at Able Muse and as an executive board member at Poetry by the Sea, an annual poetry conference. Her work appears in journals such as Atticus Review, Crab Orchard Review, DIAGRAM, Measure, Mezzo Cammin, Modern Haiku, ONE ART: a journal of poetry, the Orchards, PANK, Plume, the Raintown Review, Rattle, RHINO, Sonora Review, Spillway, Tupelo Quarterly, and the anthologies Extreme Sonnets and Extreme Formal Poems. Garcia's manuscript for Oxblood was named a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award and the Richard Wilbur Award, and a semifinalist for the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize and the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. Her work has received the Willow Review Award, won a 2021 Best New Poets honor, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Visit her at www.nicolecarusogarcia.com.