Francina Hartstra is a water gypsy, who was born and raised on a river- plying cargo vessel. For the first thirteen years of her life she visited Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. After living for twelve years in the United States of America she returned in 1998 to the Netherlands where she still resides. Her poetic interests began in Pennsylvania (USA), where she collected poetry books, was a member of the Wallace Steven Society, and developed a fondness for Japanese and Chinese poetry. She began to write poetry of her own in 2000. Her first poetry book the Song of the River was published in 2004 by Helionaut Publication, Kentucky, USA, followed by Beyond the Threshold in 2013. Several of her poems were included in the American Anthology Time's Essence in 2014. She recently published the Dutch poetry book Eb en Vloed, in collaboration with the Belgian poet Jef Lenaerts.