Telaina Eriksen

Telaina Morse Eriksen was born in rural Michigan, the youngest of seven children in a working class family. She received a B.A. in journalism with concentrations in history, English, and political science from Michigan State University in 1990. She worked for many years in the educational software industry writing technical manuals, and doing marketing and public relations. She returned to school at age 39 to study for her MFA in creative writing, concentrating in both creative nonfiction and poetry. She graduated from Antioch University Los Angeles in December 2009. She has taught creative writing for the Department of English at Michigan State University for the last five years. Her work has appeared (or is forthcoming) in By One’s Own Hand: Writing About Suicide Loss (an anthology) Mother is a Verb (poetry anthology), Under the Sun, The Fem, The Good Men Project, Role Reboot, The Manifest-Station, ARS Medica, Hospital Drive, Marco Polo Quarterly, The Truth About the Fact, poemmemoirstory and in many other online and print publications. Her essays have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2010 and 2011. She lives in East Lansing, Michigan with her husband of 24 years, her 16-year-old son, and her two dogs, Sprite and Clement. (Her 20-year-old daughter drops in from college for free wi-fi and laundry once or twice a month as well.)