Monica A. Hand (November 24, 1953 – December 16, 2016) is the author of two books of poems, me and Nina (2012), and The DiVida Poems (posthumous, 2018). After a career of over 30 years with the postal service, Hand enrolled at the University of Missouri, where she was working toward a PhD in Creative Writing at the time of her death at age 62. Hand was included in such anthologies as Beyond the Frontier and Gathering Ground. A Cave Canem alumni, she won the 2010 Kinereth Gensler Award, and founded Poetry Slam Academy, an in-school youth performance organization. She was the mother of two, and grandmother of two.
To read more by this author: Two Poems, It’s Your Mug Anniversary Issue, Vol. 10:2, Spring 2009.