Tyler Allen Penny is a bi poet, educator, and performer from a one-stoplight town in the pine belt of Mississippi. His poems have appeared in Columbia Journal, TSR: The Southampton Review, Deep South Magazine, Salt Journal, OF ZOOS, and Fearsome Critters: A Millennial Arts Journal and is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2018. He holds a degree in English from the University of Mississippi and an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Stony Brook Southampton, where he taught undergraduate poetry workshops. Throughout the east end of Long Island, NY,  he’s also taught playwriting in public and private schools for the Young Artists and Writers Project. His honors include the 2014 Joseph Kelly Prize in Creative Writing, a Distinguished Travel Award to attend the 2017 Tin House Winter Poetry Workshop, and artist residencies at Taleamor Park and the Vermont Studio Center. He has performed his poems for the USDAC People’s State of the Union at the Parrish Art Museum, Writers Speak Wednesdays and Poetry Street Riverhead.