In 2000, Cheryl Latif attended the Seattle Poetry Festival, during which the Pacific Northwest claimed her. The former host of San Diego’s nationally known reading, Poetic Brew at the Claire de Lune, she has served as a judge for the San Diego Writers Cooperative, (2002); Berkeley, California's Bay Area Poets Coalition (2003); and African American Writers and Artists (2003) poetry contests. Her work has appeared in local, regional and national journals and anthologies, including Piedmont Literary Review, New Millennium Writings, The Comstock Review, Poetry Motel’s Wallpaper Series, Poetry Conspiracy, Limestone Circle, So Luminous the Wildflowers, and Exhibition. In 2002 she was commissioned to write a poem for the dedication of an Ashland, Oregon, synagogue and has read at colleges, universities, the Austin International Poetry Festival and local readings throughout the West. She is the author of two chapbooks, transformations (1999) and rain on my tongue (2000), the latter of which will be available at the reading. Cheryl now lives on Bainbridge Island, a 35-minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle, Washington. She is currently working on a new manuscript.