Barbara Marie Minney, a native of West Virginia, writes personal and emotional poetry that describes her feelings, thoughts, and passions while struggling to live her truth as a transgender woman.  She began her transition to living authentically as the woman that she now knows she was meant to be at the age of 63 after repressing her true gender identity for over 60 years. Barbara’s work has been published in the “50th Anniversary Hessler Street Fair Poetry Anthology,” “Women Speak: Volumes 5 and 6: Women of Appalachia Project,” “The Gasconade Review Presents: Ladies’ Night,” “Woman Scream: The International Poetry Anthology of Female Voices,” “Voices of Real 4 and 5,” “For A Better World 2020: Poems and Drawings on Peace and Justice,” “Wicked Gay Ways Summer 2020 Issue and Winter 2021 Issue,” “Pluviophile: Digital Mental Health Anthology,” “Breaking the Silence: An Anthology of Queer Self, Life, and Love in NE Ohio,” “Inside Out: An Affirming Epiphany,” The Buckeye Flame, and Politico.  Barbara’s first collection of poetry, If There’s No Heaven, was the winner of the 2020 Poetry Is Life Book Award and was published in May of 2020 by Poetry Is Life Publishing.  It was selected by the Akron Beacon Journal as a Best Northeast Ohio Book in 2020.  Barbara is a retired attorney and lives in Tallmadge, Ohio, with her wife of 40 years and a menagerie of stuffed animals.   You can follow Barbara at www.barbaramarieminneypoetry.com.