Tessa C. Berman is a poet and literary scholar from Virginia. She is currently an MFA in Poetry candidate at Syracuse University and the assistant poetry editor of Salt Hill Journal. In 2025, she earned her BA in English Literature from the University of Virginia, where she co-curated the special collections exhibition Anne Spencer: I Am Here! and completed a thesis on poets and their avian emanations under Mark Edmundson. She also spent considerable time working as an auditory neuroscience researcher. Tessa’s poetry seeks to strike a balance between exploring the self and striving to illuminate intersubjective truths. Her pieces have previously been included in Literary Matters, Heavy Feather Review, and Neologism, among others. When not reading or writing, Tessa is likely collecting vintage items, drinking hot cinnamon tea, or tending to her pet finches, Ruby and Thirteen.