Akesha Baron

Akesha Baron has done fieldwork with indigenous people in Mexico and South Africa, using linguistic anthropology as a vehicle for understanding the ways people create meaning in their lives. She has always been drawn to understand how human beings create deep connections and their birthright of community living. She holds degrees in linguistics and sociocultural anthropology, and has published academic articles on evolving discourse practices in an evangelical Mayan village in Chiapas, Mexico. Her poems have been finalists for the Patricia Dobler Poetry award, the New Millennium awards for poetry, and the Atlanta Review Poetry competition. Other poems appear in Common Ground Review, Snapdragon, ESME and an anthology, Washington 129, edited by Washington State Poet Laureate Tod Marshall. She received Honorable Mentions from the Academy of American Poets contest, New Millennium for nonfiction, and the Writer Advice flash memoir contest. After a long odyssey on the east coast, she currently lives in her hometown of Seattle with her eleven-year-old daughter, where both enjoy gummy bears that are buried in frozen yogurt and pineapple on pizza.