Usha Akella moved to the US from India in 1993. She studied at the Hyderabad Central University (MA English) and at the University of Baltimore (MA Publications Design). Akella is the author of two books of poetry, ...Kali Dances, So Do I... and A Face that does not bear the footprints of the world, the editor of en(compass), guest editor ofBorderlands Literary Review, and has published work in many US and Indian journals such as Borderlands, Cumberland Review, The Crab Orchard Review, The Maryland Poetry Review, Pearl, Emily Dickinson Journal, Catamaran, Muse India, Indian Literature Ardent! Di-verse-city, and Kavya Bharati. Akella has won the Maryland Poetry Review’s Egan Memorial Contest, the wine poem award at Struga Poetry Evenings, and received a Pushcart nomination for her poem “One hears”, and her poetry has been translated into more than seven languages. Akella has presented at many conferences, festivals, and readings, and has worked towards offering creative writing workshops to schools in India. She is involved in Kritya, the international poetry festival in India, and is the founder of The Poetry Caravan, a mobile band of poets who provide free poetry-related activities in the New York area.