Her forthcoming books for 2009 include a memoir on ecology, embodiment and cancer called The Sky Begins at Your Feet; a new collection of poetry, Landed; and My Tree of Life: Writing & Living Through Serious Illness, an anthology she’s editing for Turning Point of Kansas City.She is author of seven books, including Write Where You Are: How to Use Writing to Make Sense of Your Life, and three books of poetry, Animals in the House, Lot’s Wife, and Reading the Body. Most recently, she co-edited (with Janet Tallman) The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader. She also writes Field Notes & Weather Reports, a blog on how to live. Her poetry and prose are published in over 50 journals, magazines and anthologies.

In addition to writing, Caryn has a deep interest in other arts. Her songs co-written with Kelley Hunt have been performed by Hunt and the Kelley Hunt Band on Hunt’s recordings, and around the world, including on Prairie Home Companion. Caryn has been quietly songwriting for piano since a young age, and in recent years, she is learning the cello. Over the years, she has explored beading, collage, and mandalas.

Her performance pieces include, with Kelley Hunt and the 940 Dancers, “Dangerous Curves: Breast Cancer Awareness” and “Dangerous Curves II: Surviving and Thriving.” She has also participated in and organized numerous collaborations over two decades, with dancers, musicians, and artists.

Caryn has a PhD in literature with specialties in poetry and mythology, and she’s a certified poetry therapist. She was awarded the 2006-2008 Kansas Arts Commission Fellowship for Poetry, the Rocky Mountain National Park artist-in-residency for 2005, the National Association for Poetry Therapy education award, the City of Lawrence Phoenix Award for literary excellence, among other awards. Her poetry and prose are published in over 50 literary journals and anthologies, and she gives frequent readings.

Caryn facilitates workshops on writing, callings and right livelihood, writing as a spiritual practice, ecopoetics, and other topics at conferences, retreat centers, community centers and gatherings. She is also passionate about yoga as a way of reinhabiting the body. Caryn helped found the Transformative Language Arts Network, the Continental Bioregional Congress, and the Kansas Area Watershed Council. She has also worked as a community organizer, conference organizer, and journalist.

See Caryn’s website, blog, Poet Laureate page and Goddard page.

Organizations:

• Turning Point, Kansas City, MO.
• Institute of Cuture of Moreles, Cuernavaca, Mexico
• HueHue Coyotl Ecovillage, Moreles, Mexico
• The Writers Place, Kansas City, MO.
• The Guadalupe Center, Kansas City, MO.
• The Kansas Interegeneration Network, Ottawa, KS.
• Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority, Lawrence, KS.
• The Pelathe Center’s Midnight Poetry League project, Lawrence, KS.
• Marion County Women’s Network, KS.
• Lawrence Jewish Community Center, Lawrence, KS
• The Farm, Summertown, TN.
• Kansas Area Watershed Council Annual Gatherings through Kansas
• The Light Center, Baldwin, KS.

Medical Centers:

• Stormont-Vail Medical Center, Topeka, KS.
• St. Joseph Hospital, Kansas City, MO.
• Lawrence Memorial Hospital Oncology Center, Lawrence, KS.
• The Menninger’s Foundation, Topeka, KS.

Conferences:

• White Memorial Camp, Council Grove, KS.
• Earthaven Ecovillage, Camp Elliott, N.C.
• National Association for Poetry Therapy Annual Conference
• North American Bioregional Congress & Continental Bioregional Congress in North Carolina, British Columbia, Texas, Maine, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee.
• National Association for Poetry Therapy Conferences in N.M., FL., CA., MN., MO. And Wash., D.C.
• The Power of Words Conference, Goodard College, Plainfield, VT. annually since 2003.

Other:

• Libraries throughout Kansas and Kansas City, MO.
• School Systems througout Kansas and Kansas City, MO.
• Bookstores through Kansas, Missouri and other states