Carine Topal writes and teaches in the South Bay. She was poet-in-residence for the City of Manhattan Beach as well as artist-in residence for Manhattan Beach elementary schools. Carine participated as a poet in California Poets in the Schools. Her work has appeared in Americas Review, Water-Stone, Caliban, Pacific Review, Oberon, Best of the Prose Poem, and many other journals. She is a recipient of the Jane Kenyon Poetry Prize and has won numerous other poetry awards. Her first collection of poetry is entitled God As Thief. Her second collection, As When, is looking for a publisher!