Althea Romeo-Mark

Born in Antigua in 1948, Althea Romeo-Mark grew up in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. She attended St. Peter and Paul Catholic School and graduated in 1967. She earned a B.A. in Education and English from the University of the Virgin Islands in 1971, and an M.A. in Modern American Literature from Kent State University (Ohio) in 1974. In 1993 she earned a Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (CETEFIA) in Bern, Switzerland. Althea Romeo-Mark has taught at Addelita Cancryn Junior High School, (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands); Kent State University; the University of Liberia; Fulham Cross Secondary School and is presently teaching English as a Foreign Language in Switzerland.
Published, If Only the Dust Would Settle: Selected Poems, Arthur House, Spring 2009. Was awarded the Marguerite Cobb Mckay Prize for publication (short story," Bitter Leaf") in Volume 22 by The Caribbean Writer, 2009. Served as the guest editor for Sea Breeze Journal of Contemporary Liberian Literature, May 2008 edition(www.liberiaseabreeze.com). Contributes regularly to this journal.

 Recent publications include, "Last Island Griot," Off the Coast (Maine's International Poetry Journal, Spring 2009, Book Review of Wilton Sankawuolo's novel Sun At Down in Seabreeze: Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writings, May, 2009,  The Caribbean Writer: Univ. of the Virgin Islands, Summer 2008, Vol. 22,  the August, 2008 edition of Voodoo and  Women in Women@WomenWriters.net, A book review of Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley's poetry collection, "Before The Palm could Bloom," Sea Breeze, Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writings (www.liberiaseabreeze.com) 2008. Published (short story and personal essay) in Sea Breeze Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writings, Winter, 2007.She has also appeared in SeaBreeze in, November, 2007, 2008 and May 2008,  poems in Jigsaw: Writers' Works Bern Prose and Poetry, Winter. 2007, Switzerland; poem in Calabash: Journal of Caribbean Arts and Letters, Spring/Summer, 2007, New York University, N.Y; short stories and poems in Season for the Mortar: Virgin Islands in The Caribbean Writer, ed. Marvin H. Williams, 2004; The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review:Poetry of the Caribbean, ed. Tom O'Grady, 2004, Mind the Gap, Writers Works Bern, Switzerland, 2004. Other publications include poems or short stories in, Kariba Fortella: An Anthology of Caribbean Short Stories, 2001, Norway; Anthology 2000, Writers Works Bern, Switzerland; Ticking Along Free, ed. Diane Dicks, 2000, Switzerland; Mini Sagas, Daily Telegraph, London, 1999; World Wide Writers International,England, 1999; Yellow Cedars Blooming: An Anthology of Virgin Islands Poetry, 1998, Compost,Mass., 1999, The Caribbean Writer,1996,1995; Sisters of Caliban: Contemporary Women Poets in the Caribbean,1995; Anthology of Pan-Caribbean Poetry, ed. Dr.Vincent Cooper,1995; Niederngasse: Journal of Winning Poetry, Liberia Leben Wo Der Pfeffer Wächst, Germany. She has published four collections of poems: Beyond Dream: The Ritual Dancer (1989), Two Faces; Two Phases (1984), Palaver: West Indian Poems (1978) and The Silent Dancing Spirit (1974). Poems have also been published in the following journals: Revista Review interamericana, Welcome to my Pad, The Harvard Advocate, Sun Jewels: Anthology of Virgin lslands Poetry, New Kent Quarterly, among others. Althea Romeo-Mark believes her desire to write was inspired by her father, Gilbert Romeo, who is a fantastic story teller and Dr. David Gershator, her former professor of literature, at the University of the Virgin Islands. Awards and prizes include a scholarship to the Breadloaf Writers' Conference, an award from the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts and a poetry award from Cuyahoga Writers Workshop. She won second prize in the annual Stauffacher's English Short Story Contest, (Switzerland) 1995. She is presently working on a new poetry collection. She is married to Dr. Emmanuel Mark of Grenada and is the mother of two daughters and a son.