Fran Castan is author of "The Widow's Quilt" and "Venice: City That Paints Itself." She was named Long Island Poet of the Year 2013 by The Walt Whitman Birthplace Associaion. Her poems received The Poetry Society of America's Lucille Medwick Award, a joint award from The Academy of American Poets & New York University and a commendation from The Hippocrates Society for Poetry & Medicine, 2019. She has worked as an editor, teacher & journalist. Her poems have appeared in "Poetry" & "Ms." Magazines & many anthologies.