Dr. Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Poet Laureate of Kansas: FY 2009-2012
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D., is the 2009-2012 Poet Laureate of Kansas. Her career as a poet, fiction and non-fiction writer, teacher, mentor, and facilitator focuses on how literature can help us live more meaningful and vibrant lives. As founder of Transformative Language Arts, she also values social and personal transformation through the spoken, written and sung word.
Mirriam-Goldberg is the author or editor of eleven: Landed (poetry, Mammoth Publications), The Sky Begins At Your Feet (a memoir on cancer, community and ecology, Ice Cube Press), and “I Dwell in Possibility”: Writing and Living with Serious Illness (anthology, Turning Point of Kansas City, which she is editing). She recently co-edited, with Marilyn L. Taylor, Denise Low and Walter Bargen, An Endless Skyway: Poetry from the State Poets Laureate (Ice Cube Press). Her other books include the award-winning Write Where You Are, and editor of The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader, her poetry and prose has been published in over 50 literary journals and anthologies. Founder of Transformative Language Arts at Goddard College, where she teaches in the low-residency Individualized MA Program, Mirriam-Goldberg has extensive experience facilitating writing workshops for many populations, and giving readings and presentations. She also offers writing and singing workshops and performances with singer-songwriter Kelley Hunt through their business, Brave Voice.
Mirriam-Goldberg received her Ph.D. and MA from the University of Kansas (poetry, women's studies, mythology), and she is certified in grassroots organizing from the Midwest Academy, and poetry therapy from the National Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy. She is the recipient of Kansas Arts Fellowship in Poetry, the Rocky Mountain National Park artist-in-residency, the City of Lawrence Phoenix Award, and other honors.
Mirriam-Goldberg's Poet Laureate projects include the following:
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Poetry Across Kansas - Reading and Writing Our Way Home
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Readings, Presentations and Workshops
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150 Kansas Poems to celebrate Kansas's Susquicentennial.
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Special Poetry Month Activites, which include, for 2011, the Kansas Daily Poem In Your Pocket, the To the Stars Poetry Contests, and more; and for 2010, the To the Stars Poetry Contest, and the Poetry Penpal Project.
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Everyday Magic, a soulful daily blog on the writing life, and Bodies and Voices, a weekly column on writing and yoga.
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Poet Laureati: A National Convergence of Poets Laureate
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An Endless Skyway: Poetry from the State Poets Laureate
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Write From Your Life Columns and Podcasts, including a year of High Plains Public Radio shows.
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