Prior to becoming a poet and literary editor, Merna built a successful career as a communications consultant, helping business leaders improve how they speak, write, and respond to the media. Her business articles have appeared in national business and consumer publications. She is the President and Founder of Satori Communications Inc. and earned her master’s degree from Emerson College. Beginning in 2015 she began studying poetry at the UCLA Writers Extension Program, and continued with Tupelo Press, Kenyon Review, and Poets on the Coast workshops, among others. 

 

Her poetry has been published in six anthologies, and over 30 U.S. and international print and online journals. Her chapbook A Brief History of Two Aprons was published by Finishing Line Press. Most recently, Merna was a finalist in Crosswinds Poetry Journal’s  2023-2024 Contest. She is currently working on her first full length poetry collection, and is editing an anthology of fishing poems by female poets, titled Casting Lines.

 

A Michigan native, Merna caught her first fish when she was six. She’s lived in six states and traveled to six continents. She’s the proud mother of two creative sons, a grandmother to one, and currently calls Portland, OR home.

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