Helen Bar-Lev was born in New York in 1942.  She holds a B.A. in Anthropology.  She has lived in Israel for 40 years, and has held more than 90 exhibitions of her landscapes, 33 of which were one-person shows.  Her poems and artwork have appeared in numerous online and print anthologies - Cyclamens and Swords and other poems about the land of Israel; The Muse in the Suitcase, both with Johnmichael Simon, illustrated by Helen;  In Moonlight the Sky Will Slide with Katherine L. Gordon – see www.helenbarlev.com .  Helen is Senior Editor of Cyclamens and Swords Publishing, www.cyclamensandswords.com ;  former Editor-in-Chief of Voices Israel Annual Anthology; current Secretary of Voices Israel Group of Poets in English www.voicesisrael.com .  She is also the global correspondent and contributing editor for SKETCHBOOK, A Journal for Eastern and Western Short Forms http://poetrywriting.org .  Helen was awarded Senior Poet Laureate in 2009 and 2011 from the Amy Kitchener Foundation.