Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is an American poet, writer and professor, honored as the third Kansas

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

(2009–2012). A professor at

Goddard College Goddard College is a progressive education private liberal arts low-residency college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle, Washington. The college offers undergraduate and gra ...

, a private, liberal arts college in

Plainfield, Vermont Plainfield, a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States was incorporated in 1867. The population was 1,236 at the 2020 census. Plainfield is the location of Goddard College. Geography Plainfield is located at . According to the United ...

, she serves as the coordinator for the Transformative Language Arts track, which she initiated. Enriching people across the United States, Mirriam-Goldberg uses workshops, retreats, and readings to broaden different communities' ideals about spoken, written, and sung word.

Biography

Mirriam-Goldberg was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She received her bachelor's degree in history from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

, and later a

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

, where she focused on poetry, women's studies, and mythology. Mirriam-Goldberg’s beliefs are apparent through the service she has done as Kansas Poet Laureate. Currently, she lives south of

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas River, Kansas and Waka ...

with her husband Ken Lassman, a regional writer, and their three children.

Kansas Poet Laureate

Through the Kansas Arts Commission, Mirriam-Goldberg is offering a series of programs, including workshops, lectures, and readings. Additionally, she helped organize "Poet Laureati: A National Convergence of Poets Laureate" which was held in March 2011 at the

Spencer Museum of Art The Spencer Museum of Art is an art museum operated by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Spencer Museum seeks to "...present its collection as a living archive that motivates object-c ...

on the University of Kansas campus. The program included

Ted Kooser Theodore J. Kooser (born 25 April 1939) is an American poet. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2005. He served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006. Kooser was one of the first poets laureate selec ...

(former U.S. Poet Laureate),

Jonathan Holden Jonathan Holden, the first Poet Laureate of Kansas, was a Professor of English at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. Chosen in 2004, his two-year term began July 1, 2005. He was succeeded by Denise Low on July 1, 2007. Biography/education ...

(first Kansas Poet Laureate), herself, and 17 other states' poets laureate. She also facilitates writing workshops for people of many backgrounds. Her workshops are for people living with cancer and other serious illness, for low-income women, and for adults in transition. A certified poetry therapist, Mirriam-Goldberg serves on the executive board of the National Association for Poetry Therapy, and on the steering committee of the Transformative Language Arts Network.

Educator

As a professor at Goddard College, Mirriam-Goldberg has participated in initiatives to further the understanding of using language and arts to transform theater arts, storytelling, drama, etc., to one's community encouragement and community-building. She is very involved in being a facilitator where people are involved in writing workshops. Mirriam-Goldberg is much like other female poets who speak about womanhood and experiences in life that have reflected her hardships with having cancer.

Honors and awards

* City of Lawrence Phoenix Award * Kansas Arts Fellowship in Poetry * Rocky Mountain National Park artist-in-residency

Publications

Mirriam-Goldberg has published 18 books, over 50 poems and prose, all monographs, in addition to more than 190 poems published in professional journals. * ''Animals in the House: Poems'' (Topeka, KS: Woodley Memorial Press), 2004. * ''Circle of Women Circle of Words: A Project of the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority Resident Services Office'' (Lawrence, KS: Mammoth Press), 2006. work of poetry by low-income women edited by Mirriam-Goldberg* ''Landed: New Poetry'' (Lawrence, KS: Mammoth Publications), 2009. CD of her reading her poetry as well as songs co-written with Kelley Hunt and performed by Hunt] * ''Lot's Wife'' (Topeka, KS: Woodley Press), 2000. [poetry] * ''Reading the Body'' (Lawrence, KS: Mammoth Press), 2004. [poetry] * ''Sandra Cisneros: Latina Writer and Activist'' (Springfield, NJ: Enslow), 1998. iography for a juvenile audience* ''The Sky Begins at Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and Coming Home to the Body'' (North Liberty, IA: Ice Cube Press), 1999. emoir documenting her struggle with breast cancer, community, and ecology; reprinted in 2009* ''The Divorce Girl: A Story of Art and Soul'' (North Liberty, IA: Ice Cube Press), 2012.

ovel Bereavement in Judaism () is a combination of ''minhag'' and ''mitzvah'' derived from the Torah and Judaism's classical rabbinic texts. The details of observance and practice vary according to each Jewish community. Mourners In Judaism, the p ...

Collaborative works

* ''The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader, Social and Personal Transformation Through the Spoken, Written and Sung Word'' (Keene, NH: Transformative Language Arts Press), 2007. ith Janet Tallman* ''To the Stars: Kansas Poets of the Ad Astra Poetry Project'' (Lawrence, KS: Mammoth Publications), 2009. dited by Denise Low; Mirriam-Goldberg provided "Ad Astra Poetry Writing Guide: Prompts by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg"* ''Write Where You Are: How to Use Writing to Make Sense of Your Life, a Guide for Teens'' (Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Pub.), 1999. ith Elizabeth Verdick & Darsi Dreyer

Notes

References

Dr. Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg: Poet Laureate of Kansas, FY 2009-2012

Mirriam-Goldberg's Personal Website

External links

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg's blog as Poet Laureate of Kansas

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg's personal web page

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg on Goddard College's Webpage

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg's Brave Voice Program

Celebrating Kansas’ Sequicentenial
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mirriam-Goldberg, Caryn Living people University of Kansas alumni People from Lawrence, Kansas Poets Laureate of Kansas University of Missouri alumni Year of birth missing (living people) American women poets 21st-century American poets 20th-century American poets Writers from New York City Poets from New York (state) Goddard College faculty American women memoirists American memoirists 20th-century American women writers American women academics 21st-century American women writers