Tina Biello is Italian by way of Lake Cowichan, BC. She is born to immigrant parents from Southern Italy. She lives on the traditional territory of the Snaw-naw-as people. She is an actor, a poet and playwright. She had the great privilege of working with mentor Patrick Lane from 2008-2019. Her first full-length book of poetry, In the Bone Cracks of the Walls, published by Leaf Press, was part of a multi-disciplinary art exhibition of poetry, watercolour and music in Montreal, Vancouver and Italy. A Housecoat Remains is her second collection with Guernica Editions, 2015. Playing into Silence is her third collection with Caitlin Press, 2018. Her recent two-act play is based on Lorna Crozier’s poems from A Saving Grace. She was the second Poet Laureate of Nanaimo from 2017–2020. Since then she has been collaborating with composers and the Vancouver Island Symphony with new symphonic works set to her poetry.