### December Featured poet: Judith Janoo It feels right to cement *The Pierian*’s regional identity as a journal rooted in New England by featuring a Vermont poet in our first issue. Judith Janoo anchors the number in autumn colors and Maine shorescapes. Her two poems exhibit diverse structures but unite in discovering beauty in the face of loss. Judith’s poetry has been widely recognized, winning the Soul-Making Keats Award, the Vermont Award for Continued Excellence in Writing, and the Anita McAndrews Award for Human Rights poetry. Her poetry has appeared in *Pedestal Magazine*, *Sow’s Ear*, *The Fish Anthology*, *The Main Street Rag*, *Evening Street Review*, *Euphony*, *The Mountain Troubadour* and *Vermont Magazine*. In her own words: Judith lives in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, near the Canadian border, where the smoke plume from her chimney goes straight up on cold days. She grew up in a fishing village on the Maine coast rowing a dinghy before she rode a bike. She now shares mountain trails with black bear and white-tailed deer.