Professional writers and educators share their techniques for teaching imaginative writing and review books on writing pedagogy and related subjects. Please visit the Teachers & Writers website to learn more and to view this month's current lesson plan and featured writer. Nicole Hefner has had her poems published in The New York Quarterly, Lingo, Washington Square Review, The Windmill, The Young Zionist Newsletter, and EarthQuakes. Ms. Hefner was awarded the Washington Square Poetry Prize in 1998. Jean Valentine was the judge. A graduate from the University of Oklahoma, where she studied under legendary poet George Economou, Nicole went on to study under Sharon Olds, Marie Howe, and Jean Valentine in the MFA program at New York University. She now lives in Brooklyn with her fish and two men. Nicole likes to horseback ride, kayak, and rapel down sheer cliffs without safety ropes.