Kansas Citizens for the Arts is currently sharing all the poet laureate information for the poet laureate of Kansas program.

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. For a summary of her work recently as poet laureate, please see her most recent report on her activities

Mirriam-Goldberg is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including in recent years:

• Begin Again: 150 Kansas Poems, editor from the 150 Kansas Poem project, forthcoming in late 2011 by Woodley Press.

• The Divorce Girl, a novel, forthcoming in the summer of 2012 by Ice Cube Press.

• An Endless Skyway: Poetry from the State Poets Laureate, co-edited with Marilyn L. Taylor, Denise Low and Walter Bargen, Ice Cube Press

• Landed (poetry, Mammoth Publications)

• The Sky Begins At Your Feet (a memoir on cancer, community and ecology, Ice Cube Press)

• My Tree Called Life: Writing and Living with Serious Illness editor, Turning Point of Kansas City

• The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader, editor, TLA Press.

Mirriam-Goldberg's 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:

• Poetry Across Kansas - Reading and Writing Our Way Home

• Readings, Presentations and Workshops

• 150 Kansas Poems to celebrate Kansas's Susquicentennial.

• Special Poetry Month Activities, which included, for 2011, the Kansas Daily Poem In Your Pocket, the To the Stars Poetry Contests, and more.

• Everyday Magic, a soulful daily blog on the writing life, and Bodies and Voices, a weekly column on writing and yoga.

• Poet Laureati: A National Convergence of Poets Laureate

• An Endless Skyway: Poetry from the State Poets Laureate

Background:
The poet laureate promotes and encourages a broad appreciation of poetry through their own educational outreach programming. Since 2005, the Kansas Arts Commission was been part of the national cultural tradition of officially honoring a citizen poet of exceptional talent and accomplishment through the appointment of a Poet Laureate of Kansas. In the spring of 2011, with the governor of Kansas eliminating all state funding for the arts and dismantling the Kansas Arts Commission, the poet laureate program was thrust into a period of limbo. In the summer of 2011, Kansas Citizens for the Arts came forth to house the poet laureate program until state arts funding and a state arts agency are restored. This allows Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg to finish out her three-year term as the third poet laureate of Kansas and provides solid ground upon which to conduct a transparent process to choose a fourth state poet laureate, to begin the position on July 1, 2012.

For more information on Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, please see: www.carynmirriamgoldberg.com - www.bravevoice.com - www.goddard.edu.

Other pages:

• Bring the Poet Laureate to Your Community!
• Frequently-Asked Questions
• Dr. Denise Low, Poet Laureate of Kansas, 2007-09
• Dr. Jonathan Holden, Poet Laureate of Kansas, 2005-07
• Poetry Month In Kansas