A Hole in the Night

Early on in this beautiful poetry collection A Hole in the Night, we are told that there is "a field beyond memory and hope." In Lana's words, it is a world infused with warmth, color and vibrancy, a world Van Gogh might have painted. Here, regrets and nightmares live companionably beside the glorious details of daily living: crows, sweet corn, violins, waterfalls, chickens, the presence of Van Gogh's masterpiece The Starry Night, and so much more. Lana's work pays tender homage to her beloved muse and mentor, the late poet Patricia Fargnoli. I read these praise-filled poems and felt blessed to be reminded: "the trees become green again as forgiveness."

- Andrea Potos, author of The Presence of One Word and Her Joy Becomes

Lana Hechtman Ayers worked in insurance, mutual funds, customer service, research, and fact-checking but her true calling has been publishing the work of other poets as managing editor of Concrete Wolf Poetry Series, MoonPath Press, and World Enough Writers. She also facilitates generative writing workshops in the Amherst Method, conducts an online poetry book club, hosts Zoom poetry reading series, and produces the weekly Poem After Poem Newsletter.

Lana earned BAs in Mathematics and Psychology, holds a Master's in Counseling Therapy, and possesses MFAs in Poetry and Writing Popular Fiction. A multiple Best of the Net, Pushcart Prize, and National Book Award nominee, she won honors in the Discovery / The Nation Award and in the Rita Dove Poetry Prize. She was awarded writing residencies from Hedgebrook, Devils Tower National Park, and the Whiteley Center.

She is the author of fourteen previous collections of poems
and chapbooks, including: Still Life with Sorrow and Joy (The Poetry Box, 2026), Sky Over (Fernwood Press, 2026), The Autobiography of Rain (Fernwood Press, 2024), Overtures (Kelsay Books, 2023), When All Else Fails (The Poetry Box, 2023), Red Riding Hood's Real Life (Night Rain Press, 2017), The Moon's Answer (Egress Studio Press, 2016), Dance From Inside My Bones (Snake Nation Press, 2007), winner of the Haas Award, and Chicken Farmer I Still Love You (D-N Publishing, 2007), winner of D-N's annual award. She published a romantic time travel adventure, Time Flash: Another Me (Night Rain Books, 2018), and hopes someday to complete the sequel, currently stalled at 25,000 words.