Orel Protopopescu is an award-winning poet, author, and translator, published by major houses, who conducts workshops for children and adults. She won first prize in Oberon Poetry Magazine's 2010 and 2020 contests. Most recent work: DANCING PAST THE LIGHT: The Life of Tanaquil Le Clercq (University Press of Florida, Fall, 2021). Thelonious Mouse (FSG), a picture book, was SCBWI’s Crystal Kite Winner, 2012, for the New York metro region. Two Sticks is a Bank Street College best book of 2008. What Remains, a chapbook of poems, appeared in 2011. A Word’s a Bird, her bilingual (English/French) poetry app for iPad, was chosen by SLJ as one of the best apps of 2013. Her book of translations and history, A Thousand Peaks, Poems from China (with Siyu Liu) is a NYPL "Book for the Teen Age" winner. Her book for teachers, Metaphors and Similes You Can Eat (Scholastic) includes outstanding poems by middle and junior high school children written in her workshops.