About the Author

Tara V. Spencer is a transgender woman writing from the quiet edge of self-discovery. Her poems trace an intimate path of becoming—not as transformation, but as return. With sparse language and open-hearted honesty, she explores what it means to live fully as herself, after years of putting on.

Her pen name honors Tara, the bodhisattva of compassion and fearless liberation, whose presence guides her voice with tenderness and courage. Spencer carries the memory of the girl under the pine tree. The “V” lives quietly between them, holding many meanings—voice, victory, veiled truths—but mostly, it stands for vulnerability: not as something to overcome, but something she allows to be present.