TARA BETTS is a lecturer in creative writing at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. She is writer/educator/performer who appeared on HBO's "Def Poetry Jam" and in the SouthWest V-Day production of Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues" at Chicago's DuSable Museum. She also appeared in the Black Family Channel series "SPOKEN" with Jessica Care  Moore-Poole. Tara represented Chicago twice at the National Poetry Slam.  Tara also co-hosted and organized the women's performance space/open mic series Women OutLoud, which was recently revived by Insight Arts. 

Tara's work has appeared in Essence magazine, the Steppenwolf Theater production "Words on Fire," Obsidian III, Callaloo, PMS and Ninth Letter. Her work has been anthologized in Gathering Ground (University of Michigan Press), Bum Rush the Page (Three Rivers Press), The Spoken Word Revolution (Sourcebooks), Power Lines (Tia Chucha Press), Poetry Slam (Manic D Press), These Hands I Know (Sarabande) and Best Black Women's Erotica 2 (Cleis Press).