Poet, author and storyteller Marta Miranda-Straub, is a an Afro-Caribbean, Queer woman born in Cuba. She immigrated to the US at age 12 with her nuclear family, after receiving political asylum. She served as a tenured professor in the Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Social Work at Eastern Kentucky University for twenty years. During her tenure she served as the chair of Women and Gender Studies and the director of Multicultural Student Affairs. Her clinical expertise is in mental health and addiction recovery.She is the former Social Services Commissioner (DCBS) for the state of Kentucky, and the founder and president of Catapult Now LLC, an organizational development and training firm.Please visit: www.martamirandastraub.comMarta was inducted into the Affrilician Poets by Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker in 2009. She was named one of 15 writers to watch in 2023, by the LA Weekly, and among one of 15 emerging authors in 2025 by MSN. Her bilingual Memoir Cradled by Skeletons, a Life in Poems and Essays was published in 2019, and her illustrated children's book Lullaby for Maddie, was published in 2022, both published by Shadeland house Modern Press.She performs with the Naked Poets and the Affriician poets, and her insights and voice are valued across the country demonstrated by being a well sought out speaker at keynotes, conferences and marches.