Erin Belieu was Centrum’s Artistic Director for the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference from 2011-2015. She is the author of three collections of poetry. Her first book, “Infanta,” was a winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by Hayden Carruth. “Infanta” was also chosen as a best book of the year by The Washington Post and Library Journal.

Her second collection, “One Above & One Below,” was the winner of the Midland Authors Prize in poetry and the Ohioana prize, and her most recent collection, “Black Box,” was a finalist in 2007 for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She is presently Director of The Graduate Creative Writing Program at Florida State University.

Belieu is also the coeditor of The Extraordinary Tide, an anthology published by Columbia University Press that features the work of contemporary American women poets. She has worked extensively in literary publishing and was previously the managing and poetry editor for AGNI magazine, as well as the founding editor of Hotel Amerika.

In addition to her writing, editing, and teaching, Erin Belieu is the co-founder and co-director of VIDA, a literary organization that seeks to explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women through meaningful conversation and the exchange of ideas among existing and emerging literary communities. Erin previously taught at the Conference in 2004 and 2010.