Introducing: Annaliese Jakimides

You've probably seen her around Bangor. She's the lady with an almost-shaved head who wears funky glasses and four different pairs of earrings at once. Silver bangles stack up her forearm and her cropped pants frequently show off a pair of wildly colored socks. This is Annaliese.

Each month Annaliese uses her red pen to mark up the entire Bangor Metro magazine not once, but twice. She writes our "Works in Progress" feature on a Maine artist and a personal essay for "Last Word".

But Annaliese's talents go beyond Bangor Metro. A poet, essayist, and short fiction writer, her stories have been shared on National Public Radio and published in This I Believe II and About Face.

You can listen to Annaliese's essay titled "Learning to Find the Silver Lining" on NPR. If you listen to newer "This I Believe" essays on NPR, Annaliese's voice is featured in the intro. She's also the 2009 recipient of the Dibner Fellowship in Poetry.Not too shabby!

Her newest work can be found in the journals Consequence and Off the Coast. Check her out in the May issue where she interviews artist Alan Magee.