When I was accepted into Writers On The Moon, I wanted to share the adventure. I believe sharing our personal experience is how we find the universal. So that’s how I chose what to send to the moon.

I started with the personal: my most recent books include poems based on my life and inspired by stories in the news. Next I added an anthology from my local poetry group, Merrimac Mic. I also included an international anthology of poems in English and Farsi. This book series opened connections among poets across the globe. Finally I asked my daughter, Samantha Graves, to choose her favorites from photos taken around the world. 

In December 2020 I donated my memoir chapbook Did You Know? to Prisoner Express, along with a worksheet encouraging inmates to write their own stories. I included that assignment in my upload. So our readers on the moon may also be inspired to become writers.

Elizabeth S. Wolf won the 2018 international Rattle Chapbook contest. Her chapbook Did You Know? is included in the full-length collection When Lawyers Wept. Elizabeth’s poetry appears in multiple journals & anthologies, including Boston Literary Magazine, Ibbetson Street, Fiolet & Wing, Persian Sugar in English Tea (in English & Farsi) and Klarissa Dreams Redux.  Her poems have been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes and she was a winner in the Third Wednesday 2020 Poetry Contest. 

Isabell VanMerlin is a sculptor by education and a poet by addiction. She started Merrimac Mic in 2013 and has put together the six anthologies of M3, including WordPlay: a virtual exhibit of poetic art. She also writes her own books: Body Speak, Turkish Oddyssey, Clouds, and a few more in process. She has had poems and articles published in periodicals over the years and across the United States. Editing is her passion: she was the fall editor of the quarterly Digest for the American Society of Dowsers from 1998-2003.

Soodabeh Saiednia lives in Queens, New York. She got her Pharm D and PhD of Pharmacognosy and has worked as a researcher and university professor in Japan and Iran. Falling in love with poetry in 12, she writes her poems in English and Farsi which have been published in different anthologies and literary magazines. She collected, translated and edited the contemporary poetry from around the world and published them in several anthologies, most recently Persian Sugar in English Tea and Saffron Flavored Rock Candy. 

Samantha Graves is a senior at Cornell University. Samantha caught a love of travel during a family trip to India at 13. Since then she has volunteered, studied, or worked on 5 of the 7 continents. She is currently working three part-time jobs in public service, including book coordinator for Prisoner Express and social media coordinator for Happy Kids Foundation in Wegbe Ghana. After graduation, Samantha is planning to return to Ghana and work with the Happy Kids Foundation.

Additional travelers:

Merrimac Mic Anthology: Gleanings from the First Year. Edited by Isabell VanMerlin. Contributors: Muriel Angelil; K. Peddlar Bridges; Vincent D. Camley; Joe Kevin Coleman; Joyce Corcoran; Tim Cremin; KeNadine Delano; Chris Ellis; David J. Ennamorati;  Lee Eric Freedman; Peter Fulton; Lisa Golda-Shields; Tom Green; Blaine Hebbel; Jnana Hodson; Susan LaFortune; Tom Landergan; Fran Larkin; Barbara Kent Lawrence; Pete McDade; Joe McGurn; Jamie Millen; Tom Miller; Regal Pinion; Bryan P.T. Riley; Son Rivers; Muriel Soule; Ann Staffeld; Nancy Strickland; Isabell VanMerlin; Chris Warner; Elizabeth S. Wolf; Kerry Zagarella; Neal Zagarella

Persian Sugar in English Tea I. Translated and Edited by Soodabeh Saeidnia and Aimal Zaman. Contributors: Arthur C. Ford, Sr.; Bob Heman; Bob Whitmire; Charles Braddy; Claudine Nash; Des Mannay; Diane DeCillis; Donald Krieger; Elizabeth S. Wolf; Ellen Pober Rittberg; James D. Casey; James Walton; Jay Gandhi; Ken Allan Dronsfield; Matt Stefon; Meagan Brothers; Michael Griffith; Nancy Taylor Day; Ngozi Olivia Osuoha; Phillip Jones; Ronald Tumbaga; Thomas Fucaloro; Jordan Trethewey; Norbert Gora