Poetry

I still wonder what first drew me to poetry—was it hearing my mother’s malapropisms as she navigated English as her second language? Was it encountering the mysteries inside a volume by Wallace Stevens that prompted me to go straight to my childhood desk to try making words combine with such beauty and candor.

I majored in English at Wesleyan University, earned my MFA at Columbia University, and then completed a PhD in Literature/Creative Writing.  I have taught at a range of colleges and universities and led custom writing workshops for the United Way, 826 Valencia, Beyond Baroque, WriteGirl, and the California Institution for Women. For nearly a decade, I taught for Writing Workshops Los Angeles and currently offer creative writing workshops for both brave and secret poets. For two years, while serving as Poet Laureate of Altadena I organized community writing workshops and edited the Altadena Poetry Review. A past mentor for AWP’s Writer to Writer program, I am active with the Los Angeles nonprofit WriteGirl and screen for the Kate and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Awards.

Readings & Online Publications

 
Al-Mutannabi Street: Poetry and Art from Tragedy Elline Lipkin
Gridding the Space #6 from the series Sense of Self ©Jane Szabo 2014

Gridding the Space #6 from the series Sense of Self © Jane Szabo 2014

“Gridded” was written in response to photographer Jane Szabo’s (above) image. Both were displayed at the Griffin Museum as part of the exhibit “In Your Mother Tongue: A Word and Image Dialogue” in 2019.

Composer Sheila Firestone has arranged musical settings of two of my poems. [1] [2]

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