DeMisty D. Bellinger's debut full-length poetry collection, Peculiar Heritage, follows the inception of racism in the United States to our present political and social condition. Massachusetts poet Marge Piercy says that Bellinger "writes powerful, intelligent, and lyrical poems." Besides writing, DeMisty D. Bellinger is a poetry editor at Malarkey Books, an alumni reader at Prairie Schooner, and a professor at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts. She has a BA in English from University of Wisconsin-Platteville, an MFA from Southampton College, and a PhD from the University of Nebraska. She is an alum of Bread Loaf and she attended the Vermont Studio Center on a fellowship.