rysia Jopek was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She holds four degrees: a B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of Connecticut, an M.Phil. in English from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, and an M.F.A. in Literary Fiction from Albertus Magnus.

   Her first novel, Maps and Shadows (Aquila Polonica 2010), won a 2011 Silver Benjamin Franklin award in Historical Fiction. Her chapbook Hourglass Studies (Crisis Chronicles, 2017), was nominated for a 2018 Pushcart Prize. Her poems have appeared in BlazeVox, The Wallace Stevens Journal, Redactions, Split Rock Review, Great American Literary Magazine, Gone Lawn 19, Columbia Poetry Review, and Prairie Schooner.

  She is the founder of diaphanous micro: an e-journal of literary and visual art. Her first full-length book of poetry, DIRGE: a ballet for 13 dancers, a long sequence “fragment-hymn” poem in 13 acts, is now available here.