Molly Fisk (born July 16, 1955) is an

American poet The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country. A B C D E F G H I–J K L M N O P Q *George Quasha (born 1942 in poetry, 1942) R ...

and radio commentator. She has been teaching writing since 1994 and runs the on-line workshop Poetry Boot Camp. Her most recent book is ''Naming Your Teeth: Even More Observations from a Working Poet''. She was honored as an

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreac ...

Laureate Fellow in 2019.

Biography

Mary (

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

, "Molly") Elizabeth Fisk was born July 16, 1955. Originally from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, Fisk earned her B.A. cum laude from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in Folklore & Mythology, her M.B.A. with honors from Simmons College Graduate School of Management, and after working as a sweater designer/manufacturer (Northern Lights) and a Fortune-1000 lender (

First National Bank of Chicago First Chicago Bank was a Chicago-based retail and commercial bank tracing its roots to 1863. Over the years, the bank operated under several names including The First National Bank of Chicago and First Chicago NBD (following its 1995 merger with ...

) began writing at the age of 35. Her previous work consists of the poetry collections ''The More Difficult Beauty'' (Hip Pocket Press, 2010), ''Listening to Winter'' (Roundhouse Press/Heyday Books, 2000), ''Terrain'' (with Dan Bellm and Forrest Hamer, Hip Pocket Press, 1998), and the letterpress chapbook ''Salt Water Poems'' (Jungle Garden Press, 1994), the essay collections ''Naming Your Teeth'', ''Houston, We Have a Possum'', ''Using Your Turn Signal Promotes World Peace'', and ''Blow-Drying a Chicken'' (all Story Street Press). Fisk has received fellowships from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, the

California Arts Council The California Arts Council is a state agency based in Sacramento, United States. Its eight council members are appointed by the Governor and the state Legislature. The agency's mission is to advance California through arts, culture and creativi ...

, and the Marin Arts Council. Her prizes include the Dogwood Prize, the

Robinson Jeffers John Robinson Jeffers (January 10, 1887 – January 20, 1962) was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Much of Jeffers's poetry was written in narrative and epic form. However, he is also known for his short ...

Tor House Prize in Poetry, the National Writers Union Prize, and a grant from the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...

. She serves as Poet Laureate of

Nevada County, California Nevada County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California, in the Sierra Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 102,241. The county seat is Nevada City. Nevada County comprises the Truckee-Grass Valley, CA Micropolitan ...

(2017-2019),

Hell's Backbone Grill Hell's Backbone Grill is a restaurant located in Boulder, Utah near the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument. The restaurant serves a style of "Four Corners Cuisine": an updated combination of cowboy classics, Mormon recipes, and trad ...

Boulder, Utah Boulder is a town in Garfield County, Utah, United States, 27 miles (44 km) northeast of Escalante on Utah Scenic Byway 12 at its intersection with the Burr Trail. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 226, an increase of nearl ...

, radio station KVMR-FM,

Nevada City, California Nevada City (originally, ''Ustumah'', a Nisenan village; later, Nevada, Deer Creek Dry Diggins, and Caldwell's Upper Store) is the county seat of Nevada County, California, United States, northeast of Sacramento, southwest of Reno and northea ...

, and has appeared at TEDxSanFrancisco and TEDxGrassValley. Fisk's radio commentary is heard weekly on the News Hour of KVMR-FM (Thursdays, 6:25 p.m. Pacific Time), and is carried on community stations in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, and

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Fisk teaches creative writing classes on-line and works privately as a Life Coach in the Skills for Change tradition. She has taught Writing to Heal, a technique that boosts the

immune system The immune system is a network of biological processes that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splinte ...

, to cancer patients at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital since 2000. She taught creative writing at

U.C. Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

Extension from 1997–2003, and edited ''The Healing Woman'', a newsletter for childhood sexual abuse survivors, from 1997 to 2000. She taught with California Poets in the Schools from 1993–2006, editing three of their statewide anthologies. Fisk is the niece by marriage of the American novelist

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...

. Her mother Antoinette Pennington Fisk (1932-2000) was the sister of Updike's first wife, Mary Pennington Updike Weatherall. She is the daughter of Irving Lester Fisk, II (1928-1984) and the granddaughter of ornithologist Erma Johnson Fisk, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce (1957-1961) Bradley Fisk, Unitarian minister Leslie Talbot Pennington, and Elizabeth Daniels Pennington. Fisk's maternal great-grandfather, William Colet Johnson, helped to found Paul Revere Insurance. She dated playwright Oakley Hall III in the 2000's; her poem ''A Theatrical Death'' is dedicated to him.

Awards and honors

*2019, Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow *2017, Inaugural Poet Laureate of Nevada County, CA *2010, Corporation for Public Broadcasting Grant, KVMR-FM *2007, Dogwood Prize (for "Washington Square — New York, 1941") *2005, Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize (for "Little Songs for Antoinette") *1999, Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts *1997, Artists Fellowship in Poetry from the California Arts Council *1996, Billee Murray Denny Prize (for "The Dry Tortugas") *1995, Individual Artists Grant in Poetry from the Marin Arts Council *1992, National Writers Union, Santa Cruz/Monterey Local 7 Prize (for "Veterans")

Works

;Non-Fiction *''Naming Your Teeth'' (Story Street Press, 2018) *''Houston, We Have a Possum'' (Story Street Press, 2016), *''Using Your Turn Signal Promotes World Peace'' (Story Street Press, 2015) *''Blow-Drying a Chicken: Observations from a Working Poet'' (Story Street Press, 2013) ;Poetry *''The More Difficult Beauty'' (Hip Pocket Press, 2010) *''Listening to Winter'', #4 in the California Poetry Series (Roundhouse/

Heyday Books Heyday is an independent nonprofit publisher based in Berkeley, California. Heyday was founded by Malcolm Margolin in 1974 when he wrote, typeset, designed, and distributed ''The East Bay Out'', a guide to the natural history of the hills and b ...

, 2000) *''Terrain'', a collaborative chapbook with Dan Bellm and Forrest Hamer (Hip Pocket Press,1998) *''Salt Water Poems'' (Jungle Garden Press, 1994) *''Surrender'' (audio-tape, 1994) ;Commentary *''Blow-Drying a Chicken'' (CD-KVMR, 2008) *''Using Your Turn Signal Promotes World Peace'' (CD-KVMR, 2005) ;Editor *2020, ''California Fire & Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology'', Story Street Press *2007, ''Open to All'', Nevada County Library, with

Steve Sanfield Steven Sanfield (born August 3, 1937 – January 28, 2015) was an American poet, children's book author, and Freedom Rider. He published over 30 books during his lifetime. The University of California Davis library holds a collection of his writin ...

and Steve Fjeldsted *2001, California Poets in the Schools Statewide Anthology: ''Heart Flip'' *2000, California Poets in the Schools Statewide Anthology: ''100 Parades'' *1997, California Poets in the Schools Statewide Anthology: ''Belonging to California'' ;In other media *Fisk appeared in the award-winning PBS documentary The Loss of Nameless Things in 2005.

References

External links

Official website

KVMR-FM, Nevada City

Poetry Boot Camp

California Poets in the Schools
* https://web.archive.org/web/20110822094201/http://mollyfisk.com/bookscds {{DEFAULTSORT:Fisk, Molly 1955 births Living people American women poets Simmons University alumni National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Writers from San Francisco Radcliffe College alumni 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers People from Nevada City, California