JoAnn Balingit grew up in central Florida and lives in northern Delaware on Leni Lenape homeland. She's the author of the poetry collection WORDS FOR HOUSE STORY (2013) and two chapbooks, and has published poems and essays most recently in Poetry Magazine, About Place Journal, The Common online, McSweeney's and The Rumpus. She's working on a memoir in essays about survival, belonging, secrets, siblings and growing up mixed-race in a big Filipino American family. She's a Delaware teaching artist for Poetry Out Loud, a national high school recitation contest, and served as Delaware's poet laureate from 2008 to 2015.