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founded 1964
empowering voices, cultivating connection, advancing empathy
ACTIVE POET-TEACHERS
This is not an exhaustive list! Some Poet-Teachers do not opt in to a public profile but are still hard at work serving their communities as Poet-Teachers. If you do not see a Poet serving your region, please reach out and we'll see if we can find you a great fit.
Many Poet-Teachers will travel and offer Zoom workshops by request. Click headshots for full bio & links. You may request Poet-Teacher services at info@cpits.org or 415-221-4201.
Please note: We can help make connections between Poet-Teachers and hiring institutions! All Poet-Teachers are independent contractors. At times, Poet-Teachers are independent contractors of California Poets in the Schools. However, if a school or other institution is issuing payment to the Poet-Teacher directly, the Poet-Teacher becomes an independent contractor of that institution. Regardless, California Poets in the Schools does not cover independent contractors under our insurance policies. We abide by California's independent contractor laws. Poet-Teachers listed on this page have gone through our training program. Each hiring entity is responsible for abiding by their own institutions' professional policies, when paying a Poet-Teacher as an independent contractor. Please reach out with any questions or concerns!
SOUTH
Jessica Wilson, Los Angeles
Jessica M. Wilson Cárdenas is an International Chicana Poet, born in East Los Angeles, CA. Jessica is a 3rd generation Beatnik. She has a BA in Creative Writing, and Art History, from UC Riverside.(Riverside, CA) and a Master of Fine Arts from Otis College of Art and Design. (Los Angeles, CA) In 2009 she founded the Los Angeles Poet Society and began a network of literary events and open mics in LA County! She teaches poetry with California Poets in the Schools, the oldest non-profit dedicated to the empowerment of our youth in CA, where she taught Youth US Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman! Jessica is an Artivist; 100 Thousand Poets for Change in Los Angeles since 2011, and an organizer. Her activism is lent to stand against oppressors, standing up for justice for: Andy Lopez, Mely Corado, George Floyd, and other people of color who have been murdered; she is a woman on the Red Road. Jessica is a social justice Publisher for Los Angeles Poet Society Press, amplifying QTBIPOC voices. She’s a DJ for Radio Ollin, (www.radioollin.org) Her books of poetry include: What Breathes, Raw Kit, Marie Morrison, Serious Longing, published by Swan World Press in Paris, France.
Website: www.jessicamwilson.com
Website: www.jessicamwilson.com
Nancy Woo, Los Angeles
Nancy Lynée Woo is a poet, writer, organizer, and climate activist who harbors a wild love for the natural world. Her debut poetry collection is called I’d Rather Be Lightning (GASHER Press, March 2023). Nancy has received fellowships from Artists at Work, PEN America, Arts Council for Long Beach, and Idyllwild Writers Week. Her work has been published in The Shore, Tupelo Quarterly, Stirring, Radar Poetry, and other journals and anthologies. Nancy has an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University and a BA in sociology from UC Santa Cruz.
Nancy has been teaching poetry to adults since 2017 as the founder of Surprise the Line, and teaching poetry to children and teens since 2019. She has taught poetry in 5th grade classrooms as an Artist-Teacher with Angels Gate Cultural Center and led an after-school poetry class as an Artist at Work, which culminated in a booklet of student work. She has also taught a STEAM summer program for middle schoolers and been a guest teacher in high school classrooms. Find her cavorting around Long Beach (Tongva land) in California, and online at nancylyneewoo.com or @fancifulnance on social.
Nancy has been teaching poetry to adults since 2017 as the founder of Surprise the Line, and teaching poetry to children and teens since 2019. She has taught poetry in 5th grade classrooms as an Artist-Teacher with Angels Gate Cultural Center and led an after-school poetry class as an Artist at Work, which culminated in a booklet of student work. She has also taught a STEAM summer program for middle schoolers and been a guest teacher in high school classrooms. Find her cavorting around Long Beach (Tongva land) in California, and online at nancylyneewoo.com or @fancifulnance on social.
Carlos Ornelas, Los Angeles
Carlos Ornelas is a Mexican American poet and author from Los Angeles. He has published two poetry books and has several poems published in various publications. He is available with lesson plans for students of all ages and backgrounds. He is currently a teacher's assistant working for the Community Literature Initiative and is an active participant with Cal Poets. He is presently participating in poetry readings and lectures throughout southern California and in underserved high schools, middle schools as well as open mics and literary events. Carlos Ornelas believes in unity and empowerment through the written word. He believes in educating with poetry as a means of self growth, identity and inclusion of others. Poetry can increase students' ability to read, provide confidence for socializing or public speaking, as well as introduce students to critical thinking, various cultures and customs as well as historic events.
Alice Pero, Los Angeles
Alice Pero began teaching children poetry with a program with The New York City Ballet Education Department in the five boroughs of NYC in 1991. She was highly regarded as an asset as she was not only a published poet, but a dancer and musician and using her knowledge of all the arts, she developed a curriculum for teaching children poetry that involved a holistic artistic approach. Moving to Los Angeles in 1996 led her to the California Poets in the Schools and she began a successful career in Southern California, teaching in both public and private schools. Her students' poems have made their way into numerous CA Poets anthologies.
Pero's book, "Thawed Stars" was praised by Kenneth Koch as having "clarity and surprises." She is also collaborative with other poets and artists, having done dialogues over the last 25 years with over 20 poets and her book, "Beyond Birds and Answers" is the result of an on-going dialogue with NYC artist, Vera Campion.
In addition to being a prolific poet and poet/teacher, Pero is a flutist who formed the chamber music group, "Windsong" in 2015.
She also formed the long-running poetry series, "Moonday" in 2002 and is now curating the reading for Village Poets in Tujunga, CA. She is the 10th Poet Laureate of Sunland/Tujunga.
www.alicepero.com or write info@cpits.org
Pero's book, "Thawed Stars" was praised by Kenneth Koch as having "clarity and surprises." She is also collaborative with other poets and artists, having done dialogues over the last 25 years with over 20 poets and her book, "Beyond Birds and Answers" is the result of an on-going dialogue with NYC artist, Vera Campion.
In addition to being a prolific poet and poet/teacher, Pero is a flutist who formed the chamber music group, "Windsong" in 2015.
She also formed the long-running poetry series, "Moonday" in 2002 and is now curating the reading for Village Poets in Tujunga, CA. She is the 10th Poet Laureate of Sunland/Tujunga.
www.alicepero.com or write info@cpits.org
Kiana Shaley, Los Angeles
Kiana Shaley Martin writes and lives in Long Beach, CA. Currently, she teaches poetry at CSU, Long Beach, and coordinates the Youth Poet Laureate program through the Long Beach Public Library. Previously, she was a Teaching Assistant at Community Literature Initiative. Previous work of hers has appeared in Annex Magazine, Fugue, The Racket, and Sim's Library of Poetry's Poem-a-Week. She is available for workshops and can be reached via email at hikianashaley@gmail.com.
Gia Civerolo, Los Angeles, Poet-Teacher in Training
Gia Civerolo is a Los Angeles based poet, producer, educator, and special needs advocate. She has immersed herself into the poetry community for the past few years and is thrilled to have self-published her this first full-length collection “She Confuses Lovers, Movies, Angels & Poems”. She is honored to be published in many Southern California Series Anthologies & E-books She is also featured in the Bards of Southern California: Top 30 SoCal Poets and recently was awarded Alumni of the Year from the Community Literature Initiative. She can be seen performing and featuring at open mics throughout Los Angeles. Gia is most proud to be Riley and Holden’s Mother.
James Coats, Riverside
James Coats is a multidisciplinary artist, author, and educator born in Los Angeles and raised in the Inland Empire. As a creative change agent he believes the arts can inspire youth and influence positive change in the world.
Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl,
Inland Empire
Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl, or Diosa X for short, is a multilingual and multidimensional Xicana, Indigenous, MeXicana poetiza. She is a seasoned language arts educator with a Bachelor's in English and a Master's in Cross-Cultural Education, as well as a Level 1 Kundalini Yoga Instructor and a student of Nahualísmo. Diosa X has been writing since her preteen years, first publishing her poems in her high school’s bilingual literary magazine, Las Voces. But it wasn’t until adulthood that she began to participate in open mics at Tia Chucha’s and Tonalli Studios; and it was then that she recommitted to her poetry and finally embraced her life as a poet, and eventually, author.
In 2022, Diosa participated and won Chicago's only Spanish-language slam, Slam Diáspora, which sent her, in partnership with the Fiesta Literaria de la las Periferias (FLUP) to the continental tournament, Abya Yala: Copa América de Poetry Slam in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Prior to this experience, she also competed in the 2017 CABE Conference Spoken Word Competition, tying for first. Most recently, Diosa X became the RGVIPF's first slam champion in 2023.
This poet has facilitated poetry workshops in English, Spanish, and bilingually for the Sims Library/Los Angeles Public Library's Adult Literacy Program; Tumblewords Project; Contracorriente: Cruce de poesía y transgresión, a binational women writers retreat in Ixtapa, Mexico; Ovitt Library in the city of Ontario; the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival; the Circulo de poetas and Writers Conference, the La Raza Youth Empowerment Conference at LA Mission College, and several SoCal schools as a Poet-Teacher with California Poets in Schools.
In 2022, Diosa participated and won Chicago's only Spanish-language slam, Slam Diáspora, which sent her, in partnership with the Fiesta Literaria de la las Periferias (FLUP) to the continental tournament, Abya Yala: Copa América de Poetry Slam in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Prior to this experience, she also competed in the 2017 CABE Conference Spoken Word Competition, tying for first. Most recently, Diosa X became the RGVIPF's first slam champion in 2023.
This poet has facilitated poetry workshops in English, Spanish, and bilingually for the Sims Library/Los Angeles Public Library's Adult Literacy Program; Tumblewords Project; Contracorriente: Cruce de poesía y transgresión, a binational women writers retreat in Ixtapa, Mexico; Ovitt Library in the city of Ontario; the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival; the Circulo de poetas and Writers Conference, the La Raza Youth Empowerment Conference at LA Mission College, and several SoCal schools as a Poet-Teacher with California Poets in Schools.
Cie Gumucio, Santa Barbara
Cie Gumucio is a Master Poet/Teacher and Area Coordinator in Santa Barbara for Cal Poets in the Schools. In 2021, Cie worked in collaboration with elementary students, the Botanic Garden, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art to help bring awareness to the plight of the monarch butterflies. Poetry with Wings engaged more than 1000 students in our community and won a Santa Barbara Beautiful Award.
Cie Gumucio has designed art installations incorporating poetry, video, and dance. She curated the TEDx event, Rediscovery of the Senses in Los Angeles. Her solo Los Angeles art exhibit Writers in Search of the Sacred explored the convergence of art, literature, and spirituality.
Her writing and performance has been selected for the Speaking of Stories series and her poetry has been published in numerous Anthologies. Prior to becoming a Poetry teacher, she won awards for writing in the film and television industry.
Cie Gumucio has designed art installations incorporating poetry, video, and dance. She curated the TEDx event, Rediscovery of the Senses in Los Angeles. Her solo Los Angeles art exhibit Writers in Search of the Sacred explored the convergence of art, literature, and spirituality.
Her writing and performance has been selected for the Speaking of Stories series and her poetry has been published in numerous Anthologies. Prior to becoming a Poetry teacher, she won awards for writing in the film and television industry.
Lalli Dana Drobny, Santa Barbara
Lalli Dana Drobny received her MA in Writing from the University of Iowa and has been leading experiential, contemplative workshops for folks of all ages ever since. She especially enjoys co-creating spaces where children can welcome, nurture, celebrate, and share their voices. Her sessions inspire healthy doses of curiosity, creativity, and imagination.
Lalli founded KindMind – the Heart of Wellbeing in 2002. She has been teaching Mindfulness and Writing classes at SBCC since 2003, and became a Poet-in-the-Schools in 2019.
A Resonant Healing Practitioner since 2021, Lalli designed "Shake, Rattle, and Write – Create Your Own Self-Care Concoction" for the global 2024 Resonance Summit on The Healing Power of Play.
As a writer and facilitator, Lalli leans into nature, wanting to honestly acknowledge life's beauty and messiness, joy and struggle. She holds hope that art can help humans ground, grow, and harmonize. Her "circle wide" was published in Spring - Women's Inspiration for the Season of Hope and New Beginnings.
Lalli founded KindMind – the Heart of Wellbeing in 2002. She has been teaching Mindfulness and Writing classes at SBCC since 2003, and became a Poet-in-the-Schools in 2019.
A Resonant Healing Practitioner since 2021, Lalli designed "Shake, Rattle, and Write – Create Your Own Self-Care Concoction" for the global 2024 Resonance Summit on The Healing Power of Play.
As a writer and facilitator, Lalli leans into nature, wanting to honestly acknowledge life's beauty and messiness, joy and struggle. She holds hope that art can help humans ground, grow, and harmonize. Her "circle wide" was published in Spring - Women's Inspiration for the Season of Hope and New Beginnings.
Kimbrough Ernest, Santa Barbara
Kimbrough Ernest has been inspiring a love of writing in elementary students since her days as a 3rd and 4th grade teacher in Oxnard, Ca. Poetry "found" her many years ago during SCWriP's summer institute for teachers, where the wonderful Santa Barbara poet Barry Spacks led a workshop.
Inspired by retired CalPoet teacher, Lois Klein, Kim joined the organization in 2020. She appreciates the opportunity to share her love of poetry in the classroom and is very grateful to be part of the rich community of poets.
Kim has been published in numerous anthologies, and was recently a winner in the inaugural Ventura County Poetry Festival.
Inspired by retired CalPoet teacher, Lois Klein, Kim joined the organization in 2020. She appreciates the opportunity to share her love of poetry in the classroom and is very grateful to be part of the rich community of poets.
Kim has been published in numerous anthologies, and was recently a winner in the inaugural Ventura County Poetry Festival.
Vincent Jimenez, Ventura
Vincent Trevino Jimenez is a Chicano poet, Slam Champion, and an emerging scholar. Currently, Vincent is a Northridge student working on his Bachelor's in History and Chicano studies. In addition, Vincent is a Ventura College worker who encourages students to pursue what they are passionate about and reminds them that true change starts with their voices.
Angelina Leaños, Fresno & Ventura
Angelina Leaños is a Ventura County Youth Poet Laureate Emeritus and a first-year MFA student at Fresno State. Angelina regularly serves as a Poetry Out Loud coach and a Poet-Teacher, mentoring youth in poetry recitation and creative writing. Additionally, Angelina was a reader for the 2023 Philip Levine Prize and is currently a member of the California Poets in the Schools' Board of Directors.
During her time as a student at California Lutheran University, her poems were published in the campus Morning Glory magazine. She also received the Mark Van Doren Poetry Prize her Junior year. At the age of 20, Angelina was the youngest awardee for the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce’s 2022 40 Under Forty award ceremony.
Leaños has been widely published, including the California Poets in the School’s 2019 statewide anthology, I’ll Take this Word and Make it Mine: 2018-2019 California Poets in the Schools Anthology, the title of which comes from her very own poem, “Call Me Chicano.” In addition, her work has been published by Urban Word, Flowersong Press, the Chicanx Writers & Artists Association, and Arkana.
During her time as a student at California Lutheran University, her poems were published in the campus Morning Glory magazine. She also received the Mark Van Doren Poetry Prize her Junior year. At the age of 20, Angelina was the youngest awardee for the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce’s 2022 40 Under Forty award ceremony.
Leaños has been widely published, including the California Poets in the School’s 2019 statewide anthology, I’ll Take this Word and Make it Mine: 2018-2019 California Poets in the Schools Anthology, the title of which comes from her very own poem, “Call Me Chicano.” In addition, her work has been published by Urban Word, Flowersong Press, the Chicanx Writers & Artists Association, and Arkana.
Ga'agé Taya, "Crow Daughter," Ventura, Poet-Teacher in Training
Ga'agé Taya, "Crow Daughter," is an Apache-Jewish Poet from Ventura County. Based in Thousand Oaks, she has participated in multiple slams and readings throughout the county, notably: MLK Jr. Day observation at Libbey Park, Casa Agria's monthly slam, and Simi Valley Pride at Rancho Simi Park. She studied poetry under Fernando Salinas and has received recognition from the Oxnard Union School District as well as Ventura County Community College District for her proficient understanding of the art of poetry. Ms. Perez has been published twice: "Through me, You will See: Oxnard High Poetry Slam Anthology, 2019" and "Acid Verse, Vol. 3"
As a queer person of Native American descent, Crow Daughter values interconnectedness, awareness, and worldly comprehension first and foremost. She works closely with the Get Loud! movement located in Oxnard, Ca to provide spaces where those who may struggle to communicate themselves can be heard. If you are interested in a workshop or lesson plan, please contact crowquetzal@gmail.com for more information.
As a queer person of Native American descent, Crow Daughter values interconnectedness, awareness, and worldly comprehension first and foremost. She works closely with the Get Loud! movement located in Oxnard, Ca to provide spaces where those who may struggle to communicate themselves can be heard. If you are interested in a workshop or lesson plan, please contact crowquetzal@gmail.com for more information.
Luzmaria Espinosa, Ventura
Ventura County's Poet Laureate, internationally acclaimed poet Luzmaria "Luzma" Espinosa, is a life-long activist, teatrista, danzante and cultural worker. Born in Michoacán, Mexico, she and her family migrated to Ventura County in 1956, and she attended Santa Paula schools. She received BA degrees from UC Santa Barbara in Spanish and Sociology, and
she earned an Adult Teaching Credential and MA from Antioch University. She has shared her poetry in K-12 schools, community colleges and community cultural events in Ventura County, Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County, throughout California, Mexico, Nicaragua and Africa.
Ms. Espinosa has performed in theater productions with the former group, Los Mascarones of Mexico City, Teatro Gusto of the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, Teatro de la Calle in Sacramento, and Teatro In Lak ‘Ech of Oxnard. She was also a member of TENAZ (Teatro Nacional de Aztlan).
In 1979, she became a member of the Royal Chicano Air Force, a Sacramento, California-based art collective which supported the activities of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and helped to advance the cause of the United Farm Workers movement and other marginalized groups. She also began her life’s passion of sharing and teaching Danza Azteca. She is the first person to introduce Danza Mexica/Azteca to the Central Coast of California, where her group has impacted hundreds of lives—particularly youth—throughout Ventura County.
#poetlaureate #LuzmariaEspinosa #santapaula
she earned an Adult Teaching Credential and MA from Antioch University. She has shared her poetry in K-12 schools, community colleges and community cultural events in Ventura County, Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County, throughout California, Mexico, Nicaragua and Africa.
Ms. Espinosa has performed in theater productions with the former group, Los Mascarones of Mexico City, Teatro Gusto of the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, Teatro de la Calle in Sacramento, and Teatro In Lak ‘Ech of Oxnard. She was also a member of TENAZ (Teatro Nacional de Aztlan).
In 1979, she became a member of the Royal Chicano Air Force, a Sacramento, California-based art collective which supported the activities of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and helped to advance the cause of the United Farm Workers movement and other marginalized groups. She also began her life’s passion of sharing and teaching Danza Azteca. She is the first person to introduce Danza Mexica/Azteca to the Central Coast of California, where her group has impacted hundreds of lives—particularly youth—throughout Ventura County.
#poetlaureate #LuzmariaEspinosa #santapaula
Genesis Perez, Ventura
Genesis Perez is a poet and performer from Oxnard, California. In 2021, their debut poetry collection, Flash Photography, was published by Spit Shine Publishing. They graduated from California State University, Northridge with a BS in Recreation. Perez is currently a poet-teacher and the Programs and Bookstore Assistant at Beyond Baroque in Venice Beach.
Johnnierenee Nia Nelson, Coordinator, San Diego
Johnnierenee Nia Nelson has presented readings and workshops from Cairo, Egypt to Vancouver, British Columbia. She is the Poet Laureate of the WorldBeat Center in beautiful Balboa Park. "Identify the who, the what, and the where that you are passionate about and embrace it wholeheartedly. For me that's my immediate family (including spouse), working with children, poetry, travel, and residing in San Diego.” --Johnnierenee Nia Nelson
Award-winning poet and playwright Johnnierenee Nia Nelson, aka, the Kwanzaa Poet, has written five books of Kwanzaa poetry. Her first volume, “A Quest for Kwanzaa”, published in 1988, was heralded as the authoritative genesis of Kwanzaa literature. “Classic Kwanzaa Poems: New and Selected” is her latest work.
She is a poet/teacher with CalPoets and with San Diego's Border Voices Project, as well as a performance poet who has presented readings and workshops from Cairo, Egypt to Vancouver, British Columbia. Ms. Nelson was featured at the fifth Annual El Cajon Friendship Festival with her creation “A Taste of Kwanzaa” and on two KPBS radio shows, “These Days” and “The Lounge.” She also performed at San Diego City College in collaboration with Urban Bush Women. Her video credits include the Emmy Award-winning documentary, “Lighting the Way” and KPBS' acclaimed “Border Voices” TV show.
In 2017, Ms. Nelson received a Fellowship from the Livingkindness Foundation to attend the International Women Writers Guild's 40th Annual Summer Conference in Allentown, PA. Johnnierenee serves as the Poet Laureate of the World Beat Center in beautiful Balboa Park and is the San Diego County Area Coordinator for California Poets in the Schools.
Ms. Nelson loves facilitating interactive writing workshops with middle and elementary school students while integrating art, drama, movement, and music.
Award-winning poet and playwright Johnnierenee Nia Nelson, aka, the Kwanzaa Poet, has written five books of Kwanzaa poetry. Her first volume, “A Quest for Kwanzaa”, published in 1988, was heralded as the authoritative genesis of Kwanzaa literature. “Classic Kwanzaa Poems: New and Selected” is her latest work.
She is a poet/teacher with CalPoets and with San Diego's Border Voices Project, as well as a performance poet who has presented readings and workshops from Cairo, Egypt to Vancouver, British Columbia. Ms. Nelson was featured at the fifth Annual El Cajon Friendship Festival with her creation “A Taste of Kwanzaa” and on two KPBS radio shows, “These Days” and “The Lounge.” She also performed at San Diego City College in collaboration with Urban Bush Women. Her video credits include the Emmy Award-winning documentary, “Lighting the Way” and KPBS' acclaimed “Border Voices” TV show.
In 2017, Ms. Nelson received a Fellowship from the Livingkindness Foundation to attend the International Women Writers Guild's 40th Annual Summer Conference in Allentown, PA. Johnnierenee serves as the Poet Laureate of the World Beat Center in beautiful Balboa Park and is the San Diego County Area Coordinator for California Poets in the Schools.
Ms. Nelson loves facilitating interactive writing workshops with middle and elementary school students while integrating art, drama, movement, and music.
Seretta Martin, San Diego
Seretta Martin, mission is to encourage the love of poetry. She is the managing editor and a regional editor of the San Diego Poetry Annual and a co-founder of Haiku San Diego. She has taught in the San Diego area through California Poets in the Schools and the Border Voices Poetry Project since 2004. At Oasis Learning Center she teaches adult poetry workshops. She served as a co-editor and contributor of the CPITS 50th Anniversary, “Poetry Crossing” Lesson book.
Seretta is a Philip Levine Prize, Washington Prize and Atlanta Review finalist. Her publishing credits over the last 25 years include Serving House Journal, Web Del Sol, Poetry International, Margie, Modern Haiku, California State Poetry Society, California Fire & Water anthology, A Year in Ink and San Diego Poetry Annual. She hosted the New Alchemy, Barnes and Noble Poetry Series for fifteen years. Here appearances on TV as a featured poet and interviewer of award-winner students airs frequently on the Border Voices Doorway to Vision, educational ITV channel. Seretta holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Diego State University and is a Phi Kapa Phi alumnus. She also serves as a hospice volunteer.
Sunday, November 20, 2022, was declared “Seretta Martin Day” throughout San Diego County in recognition of her accomplishments and her important work within and on behave of The Arts community by San Diego Writer’s Ink, the San Diego Entertainment and Arts Guild and the San Diego Poetry Annual. She was honored at a reception and given a Certificate of Appreciation and Recognition. Seretta’s awards include California Center for the Arts; Outstanding Leadership, grants from the Lannan Foundation and Poets and Writers, California State Poetry Society awards, the OASIS Journal’s “Best Poem” award, and the Linda Brown Memorial Idyllwild Summer Poetry Scholarship.
Seretta is a Philip Levine Prize, Washington Prize and Atlanta Review finalist. Her publishing credits over the last 25 years include Serving House Journal, Web Del Sol, Poetry International, Margie, Modern Haiku, California State Poetry Society, California Fire & Water anthology, A Year in Ink and San Diego Poetry Annual. She hosted the New Alchemy, Barnes and Noble Poetry Series for fifteen years. Here appearances on TV as a featured poet and interviewer of award-winner students airs frequently on the Border Voices Doorway to Vision, educational ITV channel. Seretta holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Diego State University and is a Phi Kapa Phi alumnus. She also serves as a hospice volunteer.
Sunday, November 20, 2022, was declared “Seretta Martin Day” throughout San Diego County in recognition of her accomplishments and her important work within and on behave of The Arts community by San Diego Writer’s Ink, the San Diego Entertainment and Arts Guild and the San Diego Poetry Annual. She was honored at a reception and given a Certificate of Appreciation and Recognition. Seretta’s awards include California Center for the Arts; Outstanding Leadership, grants from the Lannan Foundation and Poets and Writers, California State Poetry Society awards, the OASIS Journal’s “Best Poem” award, and the Linda Brown Memorial Idyllwild Summer Poetry Scholarship.
Lorena Santana, San Diego, Poet-Teacher in Training
Lorena Santana was born in México and raised in the United States. She is a multidisciplinary artist (performer, writer, director) and is currently working on a full length play and a middle-grade novel set on the México/United States border. She is a teaching artist at La Jolla Playhouse, California Poets in the Schools and Arts Education, San Diego. If Lorena isn't performing, writing or teaching, you will probably find her in (or near) a body of water.
Original Plays: Un Grano de Maíz • Francine's Dream for Intrepid Theatre's Refugee Art Project • Our Children / Nuestros Hijos, featured at The Old Globe’s New Voices Festival
www.lorenasantana.com
Original Plays: Un Grano de Maíz • Francine's Dream for Intrepid Theatre's Refugee Art Project • Our Children / Nuestros Hijos, featured at The Old Globe’s New Voices Festival
www.lorenasantana.com
Amanda Chiado, San Benito
Amanda Chiado is the author of the chapbook Vitiligod: The Ascension of Michael Jackson (Dancing Girl Press, 2016). Her poetry and fiction is forthcoming or appears in Ghost Parachute, Vine Leaves Press, Paper Darts, Cheap Pop, Jersey Devil Press, Arcana: The Tarot Poetry Anthology, All We Can Hold: A Collection of Poetry on Motherhood and many others. Her poem "The Devil Has Taken His Dress Off" won the Molotov Cocktail Shadow Poetry Award, 2016.
Amanda is writer, teacher and arts advocate. She is the Director of Arts Education for the San Benito County Arts Council and is an active California Poet in the Schools.
She holds degrees from the University of New Mexico and California College of the Arts in addition to be a credential teacher. She edits for Jersey Devil Press.
Her work has garnered support from the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, The Creative Capacity Fund, the Highlights Foundation and The Luna Dance Institute. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
Amanda is writer, teacher and arts advocate. She is the Director of Arts Education for the San Benito County Arts Council and is an active California Poet in the Schools.
She holds degrees from the University of New Mexico and California College of the Arts in addition to be a credential teacher. She edits for Jersey Devil Press.
Her work has garnered support from the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, The Creative Capacity Fund, the Highlights Foundation and The Luna Dance Institute. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
Eva Poole-Gilson, Inyo
Eva Poole-Gilson has taught poetry in K-12 classrooms in four southern California counties. She also taught basic writing skills and literature at the Cerro Coso College in Bishop and Mammoth Lakes for 15 years. She's published three books: Love Letter to the High Sierra; Little Star Sleeping; and Whiskered Wisdom. As editor, she's completing development and layout of A Spark in Slow Motion, One Woman's Way with Parkinson's Disease. Eva loves teaching young children, at-risk teens, and adults of all ages who want to share their original poems and stories. She can be reached via her website: www.evapoole-gilson.com or www.fb.com/groups/TheImaginationLab.
Dawn Trook, Merced
Dawn Trook is a writer, performer, and educator based in Merced. She is the Area Coordinator for California Poets in the Schools and a writing program faculty member at UC Merced. Besides teaching first year composition and creative writing at UC Merced, she teaches Central Valley Stories, a first-year seminar in which students interview and collect stories from local community members and respond to and share the stories through creative work. IG: @dawntrook
Beth Beurkens, Monterey
Matthew Woodman, Kern, Poet-Teacher in Training
Writing from Bakersfield, California, Matthew Woodman’s poems, stories, and essays explore issues of (dis)location and (im)permanence. He has collaborated with Bakersfield Museum of Art [BMOA] to facilitate ekphrastic “Art After Dark” poetry events and has led writing workshops on a variety of topics, including “The Poetics of Inner Geographies: Exploring the Self through Weather and Land.” His essay on Rufino Tamayo’s mural “Prometheus Bringing Fire to Mankind” was published in UNESCO Art Collection: Selected Works (2021), and his poems have appeared in Fourteen Hills, Puerto del Sol, Sonora Review, and Juked, among other journals and collections. He is the author of This Is Not Your Moon (2020) and was the contributing editor to a series of place-based themed anthologies, most recently Writing Covid (2022).
Juan Luzariaga, San Luis Obispo
Juan Luzuriaga was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and immigrated to the US in 2000. He is a UC Merced alumnus. He teaches poetry in prisons and for California Poets in the Schools. He has been published in The Merced County Times, Cholla Needles, The Vernal Pool, Poetry Breakfast, and Matchbox Magazine.
Bob Gómez, Santa Cruz
Bob Gómez, songwriter, singer, guitarist and poet, is a long-time resident of Watsonville, and worked as a Migrant and Bilingual Resource Teacher in the Pájaro Valley. He was named Watsonville’s first Poet Laureate in 2022, and inaugurated the Youth Poet Laureate search in 2023.
Elbina Batala Rafizadeh, Santa Cruz
Elbina Batala Rafizadeh is a retired public health nurse and academic faculty and researcher, who now writes and teaches poetry in the Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. Her first book of poetry, “Keepers of the Malicgong Rice Terraces” will be available through Amazon by November 2024. She is published in local and national anthologies and journals, and editor of two forthcoming anthologies, “Portable Peace Protest, From Iraq to Palestine” and “Word and Image, Contemplative Poetry by Camaldolese Monks and Oblates,” and now working on an ethnography of the descendants of the Filipino Manong generation. You can contact her through her website elbinabatalarafizade.com.
Lulu Wong, Sacramento
Prior to joining CPITS, Lulu was a litigation attorney and Certified Family Law Specialist for 25 years in Napa and Sonoma Counties. After her retirement in 2021, Lulu became a Certified Buddhist Chaplain and was a resident Pediatric hospital chaplain at UCDavis Medical Center in Sacramento, where she resides with her husband and fur baby.
Lulu has been writing poetry since high school and has been honing her craft ever since. She is inspired by Jane Hirschfield, Naomi Shahib-Nye, William Stafford, Mary Oliver, David Whyte, Pablo Neruda, Rumi, and, especially, the poetry of the first free women ancestors of Soto Zen. She is grateful to be included in the CPITS community.
CENTRAL/NORTH CENTRAL
BAY AREA
Pamela Michael, Sonoma
Education reform activist, writer, and radio producer Pamela Michael has spent decades working to integrate environmental and arts education into the lives of children and their communities. Co-founder, with Robert Hass, of the much-honored River of Words organization, her Watershed Explorer and One-Square Block curricula have been used to train thousands of teachers, park rangers, youth leaders and other educators how to connect kids to the natural world and to their own imaginations, inspiring them to create stunning art and poetry.
She served as River of Words’ executive director from its founding in 1995 until her retirement in 2016. In 2011, she moved the organization to Saint Mary’s College of California as part of the newly-opened Center for Environmental Literacy, of which she was the founding director. In the last thirty years, Michael has taught poetry to thousands of children and trained thousands of classroom teachers and other educators how to spark their students’ creativity and compassion.
Her collection of children’s work, River of Words: Images and Poetry in Praise of Water, won the 2003 Skipping Stones award for Best Nature or Ecology Book. A member of the award-winning Wild Writing Women, Michael has taught writing and poetry to both children and adults, throughout the United States and abroad. She is the former travel editor for San Francisco Bay Area’s KPFA-fm, the first listener-supported radio station in the country and wrote and produced a four-hour series on Buddhism in the United States, narrated by Richard Gere. She produced and hosted The Animal Show on Sirius Satellite Network for two years. As director of the United Nations Task Force on Media Education, she wrote the influential report, The Whole World is Watching: Media Involvement in Education Throughout the World (UNESCO). As Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the San Jose Symphony, she doubled the orchestra’s subscriber base and concert attendance. Michael lives in the Sonoma Creek watershed in the Valley of the Moon (Fetters Hot Springs). She is a Poet-Teacher for California Poets in the Schools and provides leadership, as well as writing and editing assistance to organizations and individuals.
NORTH
Dan Levinson, Humboldt
Dan has been teaching with California Poets in the Schools since 1998, reaching thousands of K-12 students at over one hundred sites, including court and community schools. He is CalPoets’ area coordinator of Humboldt, Trinity, Siskiyou, and Del Norte counties. He holds degrees in creative writing, literature, and the teaching of writing from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro; the University of California, Santa Cruz; and Humboldt State University.
While most of Dan’s residencies are in Humboldt, he has also taught poetry in Del Norte, Mendocino, Siskiyou, and Santa Cruz counties, as well as in Australia. He has also taught at Humboldt State University, College of the Redwoods, the Redwood Coast Writers’ Center, and is a Redwood Writing Project teacher-consultant. He is a founder of the Lost Coast Writers Retreat, which he attends each summer. Being a freelance editor and writing consultant, Dan has acted as a contributing editor to various publications. He is the author of Song of Six Rivers, an epic-length poem published by Humboldt State University Press. His poems and other writings have appeared in many journals and anthologies. See ZevLev.com.
While most of Dan’s residencies are in Humboldt, he has also taught poetry in Del Norte, Mendocino, Siskiyou, and Santa Cruz counties, as well as in Australia. He has also taught at Humboldt State University, College of the Redwoods, the Redwood Coast Writers’ Center, and is a Redwood Writing Project teacher-consultant. He is a founder of the Lost Coast Writers Retreat, which he attends each summer. Being a freelance editor and writing consultant, Dan has acted as a contributing editor to various publications. He is the author of Song of Six Rivers, an epic-length poem published by Humboldt State University Press. His poems and other writings have appeared in many journals and anthologies. See ZevLev.com.
Julie Hochfeld, Humboldt
Julie has worked as a California Poets in the School since 2006 and has taught over a thousand students in nine schools in Humboldt County. She has a special relationship with Coastal Grove Charter School, a K-8 school where she teaches students consecutively for five to six years. She facilitates poetry readings and has published student poems in over fifty classroom anthologies, the CA Poets in the Schools Statewide Anthology, and Poetry Crossing: 50 Lessons for 50 Years of California Poets in the Schools. She and her Humboldt County colleagues have received several California Poets in the Schools Seed Poet Grants, plus yearly California Arts Council Artists in Schools grants since 2007. A credentialed teacher for Alder Grove Charter School, she works with homeschool families, and teaches art, writing, and poetry. She’s also taught teachers and parents how to teach poetry to youth.
Julie’s poems have been published in magazines and anthologies including, Mothering, Toyon, College of the Redwoods Poets and Writers, the North Coast Journal, a Santa Barbara women’s anthology, and California Poets in the Schools Statewide Anthologies. She’s published lesson plans and poetry in Poetry Crossing: 50 Lessons for 50 Years of California Poets in the Schools, performed her poems in several venues, and had her poems performed by others.
Julie believes in the healing power of the arts, and that honoring and inspiring students’ creative voices is deeply meaningful. She loves working as a California Poet in the Schools and looks forward to supporting students’ creativity for years to come.
Julie’s poems have been published in magazines and anthologies including, Mothering, Toyon, College of the Redwoods Poets and Writers, the North Coast Journal, a Santa Barbara women’s anthology, and California Poets in the Schools Statewide Anthologies. She’s published lesson plans and poetry in Poetry Crossing: 50 Lessons for 50 Years of California Poets in the Schools, performed her poems in several venues, and had her poems performed by others.
Julie believes in the healing power of the arts, and that honoring and inspiring students’ creative voices is deeply meaningful. She loves working as a California Poet in the Schools and looks forward to supporting students’ creativity for years to come.
Blake More, Mendocino
Point Arena Poet Laureate, Blake More practices many disciplines including visual art, poetry, video, performance, and teaching. She is CalPoets Mendocino County Area Coordinator, a poetry teacher, host of a montly poetry & jazz reading series and two public radio shows: Be More Now on KZYX&Z FM Mendocino and Cartwheels on the Sky on KGUA FM. Learn more at bmoreyou.net.
Thomas Roberdeau, Mendocino
is an award-winning film-maker and writer. He has been widely published and produced.
Karen Lewis, Mendocino
Karen Lewis has been leading K-12 and community writing workshops since 1995 in rural Mendocino County. She encourages imaginative thinking and the creative "invention" process using language and mixed-media. Karen's prose and poetry have been widely published in literary journals and anthologies. Her chapbook PEACE MAPS is available from Finishing Line Press. She is a California Arts Council / Artists in Schools awardee. Learn more about Karen at
Michele Krueger, Lake
Michele Krueger hails from the Bronx, New York and studied literature at Lehman College with U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. She has worked as a poet teacher with California Poets In the Schools for several decades. She is the Sonoma County program coordinator for Poetry Out Loud. She is also the Lake County coordinator for an AIS grant offering poetry writing workshops at local high schools. Her poetry for children appears in anthologies edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins, Jack Prelutsky, J. Patrick Lewis, Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton, Kenn Nesbitt, Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.
Kristi Witt, Lake
Working with students and others as they read, listen to, or write poems is always an inspiration for me. My approach as a poet-teacher is to invite, guide, and support learners in exploring their individual voices through writing. I champion opportunities for youth and emerging writers to use poetry and creative writing as a way to feel more connected to themselves, to others, and to the world. When given space to express ourselves without an expectation of constraints, our voices can take flight.
I’ve been a creative writer for much of my life, but it wasn’t until more recently that I started sharing my poems and fiction with others. My poems have been published in Dime Show Review, Lake County’s The Bloom, and my fiction has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine.
I earned my BA in English from UC Berkeley and taught high school English in the North Bay before becoming a poet-teacher with California Poets in the Schools in 2019.
To get in touch with me about in-person or virtual lessons, please email: info@cpits.org.
I’ve been a creative writer for much of my life, but it wasn’t until more recently that I started sharing my poems and fiction with others. My poems have been published in Dime Show Review, Lake County’s The Bloom, and my fiction has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine.
I earned my BA in English from UC Berkeley and taught high school English in the North Bay before becoming a poet-teacher with California Poets in the Schools in 2019.
To get in touch with me about in-person or virtual lessons, please email: info@cpits.org.
Terri Glass,
Del Norte & Marin
Terri Glass has been an active CALPOETS poet teacher since 1989, an Area Coordinator for Marin County since 1996 and served as and Program Director from 2008-11. She has taught poetry workshops in over 35 schools in Bay area and many venues including senior centers, bookstores, and museums. She has lead workshops nationally for the Childspirit conference, River of Words program the National Poetry Therapy conference and the Austin Poetry Festival.
She is a published author of three books of poetry, most recent Being Animal from Kelsay Books, a chapbook of haiku, Birds, Bees, Trees, Love, Hee Hee from Finishing Line Press, and an e-book, The Wild Horse of Haiku: Beauty in a Changing Form. She published a lesson plan guide for teachers, Language of the Awakened Heart by Fund for Global Awakening press. Some of her writing has appeared in Eastern Iowa Review, Fourth River, About Place, California Quarterly, Young Raven’s Literary Review, and many anthologies including , Wild Gods, Fire and Rain; Ecopoetry of California, and Earth Blessings.
A writer of the natural world, which include essay, poetry and haiku, she now resides in Del Norte county where she continues to write and teach poetry writing through CALPOETS and for DNACA, the local arts council. She has her MFA in creative writing from University of Southern Maine. See www.terriglasss.com
She is a published author of three books of poetry, most recent Being Animal from Kelsay Books, a chapbook of haiku, Birds, Bees, Trees, Love, Hee Hee from Finishing Line Press, and an e-book, The Wild Horse of Haiku: Beauty in a Changing Form. She published a lesson plan guide for teachers, Language of the Awakened Heart by Fund for Global Awakening press. Some of her writing has appeared in Eastern Iowa Review, Fourth River, About Place, California Quarterly, Young Raven’s Literary Review, and many anthologies including , Wild Gods, Fire and Rain; Ecopoetry of California, and Earth Blessings.
A writer of the natural world, which include essay, poetry and haiku, she now resides in Del Norte county where she continues to write and teach poetry writing through CALPOETS and for DNACA, the local arts council. She has her MFA in creative writing from University of Southern Maine. See www.terriglasss.com
Kirsten Casey, Nevada
Kirsten Casey has been the poet laureate of Nevada County since 2021, and has been teaching poetry to Nevada County students since 2005. Her poetry collection, Ex Vivo: Out of the Living Body, published by Hip Pocket Press in 2012, is inspired by odd stories, remarkable words, and the mysteries of the human body. Her second book of poetry, (with the working title Grieving Birds,) explores historical and literary characters struggling with social media, and the common grief of animals and people. This manuscript was a finalist for the 2024 Gunpowder Press Dryden-Vreeland book prize. In 2019, she taught high school workshops as part of the Academy of American Poets Laureate fellowship granted to Molly Fisk, to facilitate the poetry anthology, California Fire & Water, which responds to California’s climate crisis. She was a co-editor of the book, which includes one of her poems. Currently, she is an associate editor of the book Small, Bright Things, a collection of 100-word stories by teens, with author and editor, Kim Culbertson. She has lived in Nevada City for 31 years with her husband, and has three adult children, who patiently assist her with technology. She can be reached through her website: https://kirstencasey.com/
Julie Valin, Nevada
Julie Valin has been writing poetry since Ditto jeans and arcades were a thing, and she has been performing and publishing her poetry for over 25 years. Her poems have appeared in The Gasconade Review, The Black Shamrock, Chiron Review, Red Fez, and more, plus several anthologies & collections, including the Punk Rock Chapbook Series by Epic Rites Press. Her latest book of poetry is Songs for Ghosts published in 2022 by Meadowlark Press (www.tinyurl.com/mcsongsforghosts), following The Distance Between (Six Ft. Swells Press) in 2011.
Julie has been an advocate of poetry in her community and in schools as a board member of the Nevada County Poetry Series from 2001-2014; a co-founder of the celebrated after-hours poetry press, Six Ft. Swells; a founding committee member of the Sierra Poetry Festival, and a founding member of the performing group, The Poetry Crashers. Her great love was the Poetry Out Loud program, where she was a poet-coach in both Nevada and Placer counties since 2009.
Julie served as Area Coordinator for CalPoets in Nevada County from 2014-2020, and was the editor of the annual California Poets in the Schools Anthology for two consecutive years: 2016-2017.
Julie has been an advocate of poetry in her community and in schools as a board member of the Nevada County Poetry Series from 2001-2014; a co-founder of the celebrated after-hours poetry press, Six Ft. Swells; a founding committee member of the Sierra Poetry Festival, and a founding member of the performing group, The Poetry Crashers. Her great love was the Poetry Out Loud program, where she was a poet-coach in both Nevada and Placer counties since 2009.
Julie served as Area Coordinator for CalPoets in Nevada County from 2014-2020, and was the editor of the annual California Poets in the Schools Anthology for two consecutive years: 2016-2017.
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