rlene Gay Levine is the author of 39 Ways to Open Your Heart: An Illuminated Meditation (Conari Press) and Movie Life (Finishing Line Press). Ms. Levine's poetry and prose have found a home in The New York Times, numerous journals and online. They include Negative Capability Press, The MacGuffin, Art/Life, Medicinal Purposes, Frogpond: Haiku Society of America, Japanophile, Unity Magazine, Family Circle, Chiron Review and Quest: The Journal of The Theosophical Society in America. Most recently her poems appeared in Valley View Review, Bronze Bird Review, Verse-Virtual, Highland Park Poetry, Poets for Human Rights and Braided Way.

 

           Her writing is frequently anthologized including in the best seller Bedside Prayers from HarperSanFrancisco, the anthology from Random House Harmony books entitled Mothers and Daughters: A Poetry Celebration and Life on the Line from Negative Capability Press, The Power of The Pause (Wising Up Press) and Road Trips: Poet's Respond to Travel on Life's Highways and Byways from Highland Park Poetry.

 

            Awards include Honorable Mention in The Writers Digest National Screenwriting Competition, Honorable Mention in The Children's Television Workshop Competition and a New York Times Company Foundation Scholarship to study dramatic writing at New York University. Her poem "The Climb" won 2nd place in The New York Encounter 2020 Poetry Contest judged by renowned poet and former Poet Laureate of California, Dana Gioia. The poem "Playing Catch with John Lennon" won Honorable Mention in a contest presented by The Queens Public Library, hosted by former Deputy Mayor of New York City and the President of the Queens NYC Library, Dennis Walcott.

 

            Arlene's poetry was performed in the Off Broadway show "Identity," read on WABC's "As You Think," and recorded on CD. She has read at The New School for the New York Quarterly and at Barnes and Noble to celebrate National Poetry Month.

 

            A Magna Cum Laude graduate of Queens College, she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and went on to earn her MA at NYU. Ms.Levine served 22 years as an educator, curriculum writer and staff trainer for the NYC Board of Education. Arlene gave her "Garden of Words" workshop at the Metropolitan College of St. John's University. She lives with her husband in New York City where she tends a garden of words, roses and herbs.