Masque

In verse simmering with sensuality, Elena Byrne eloquently reveals, then carefully slices away, layer after layer of the masks we wear until our most secret selves are exposed. Pretense is overthrown in her exotic and electric imagery, irresistibly drawing the reader into an unabashedly intimate internal dialogue. Elena Karina Byrne is poetry moderator for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and was regional director of the Poetry Society of America for twelve years. Her first book was The Flammable Bird (Tupelo Press, 2004). She's recently been published in The Yale Review, The Paris Review, The American Poetry Review, Poetry, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, and The Best American Poetry 2005.