Daiva Chesonis is a fiercely proud Baltimore-born daughter of Lithuanian immigrants. After receiving a degree in Russian Studies in 1988, she started building chairlifts, moving to Colorado in 1992 to build Telluride’s gondola transportation system. Since then, she's been a snowboard instructor, Art Director at Telluride Magazine, founder and director of the Telluride AIDS Benefit Fashion Show, co-founder of the Telluride Literary Arts Festival, and a traveling minstrel for Mountainfilm on Tour. In 2005, she earned an M.A. in Diplomacy and International Conflict Resolution—for fun—which serves her well as the co-owner of Between the Covers Bookstore in Telluride. Mom to one amazing adult, Daiva can be found writing and performing poetry (as the current San Miguel County Poet Laureate), and serving on the Boards of Norwood Park & Recreation District (NPRD) and Telluride AIDS Benefit (TAB). Spare time is spent paddleboarding, wandering local forests on the hunt for mushrooms, and also the seemingly endless canyon country just west of her home in Norwood CO where she lives with her writer husband, Craig Childs.