Paulette Swartzfager is a poet, freelance journalist, essayist, and activist originally from New Orleans, who moved to Rochester NY after Katrina in 2006. Her books include "years of dust" (2009) and "distance" (2019). She is currently a lecturer in the English Department at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In Rochester, she is also a member of the Flying Squirrel Community Space collective and Just Poets.