Sasha A. Palmer is a linguist with a BA from Moscow State Linguistic University and an MA in Translation Studies from the University of Birmingham, UK. Sasha’s awards include The Morioka International Haiku Contest grand prize, Sejong International Sijo Competition, runner-up, and The Haiku Foundation Touchstone Award for Individual Poems, among others. Her work has appeared in Slovo/Word, Cardinal Points, Liguorian and elsewhere. Born and raised in Moscow, Sasha currently lives in Maryland. Folks know her as The Happy Amateur, or Happy for short. Sasha coined the phrase “Live for the Love of it.”