Raised in Cameroon by her Cameroonian father and American mother, she migrated to America at 19. She holds a BA and MA in psychology and anthropology respectively from the universities of California (Davis) and Michigan (Ann Arbor). Her poems and essays have been published in the American River Review. In 2010, she received an Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation Fellowship to attend the UC Davis Tomales Bay Workshops. Her poem Nigerian Girl With Calabash was published in 2010 in the Library of Congress anthology, Poetry for the Mind’s Joy, and in 2011, it was was selected as “Best in the Nation” by the Community College Humanities Association. Viola is a certified yoga instructor and Ayurvedic wellness counselor. She currently resides in Sacramento, California. She writes on her blog here. […]