Photo by Kevin Rabas
About Caryn
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate, a writer, teacher, and facilitator, and coach and consultant who explores how the spoken, written and sung word can help us live more vibrant lives. Founder of Transformative Language Arts, Caryn is the author or editor of over 20 books of poetry, fiction, memoir, non-fiction, and anthologies. A registered songwriter with BMI, her poetry and prose has been published widely.
As a beloved workshop facilitator, she has led workshops since 1992 for adults in transition, people living with serious illness, and intergenerational and multi-cultural groups. She leads Brave Voice writing and singing retreats and performances with singer-songwriter Kelley Hunt, Your Right Livelihood with creativity and career coach Kathryn Lorenzen, and The Art of Facilitation classes and spiritual writing retreats with poet and facilitator Joy Roulier Sawyer. She adores collaborating with coaching clients on writing, facilitation, and Right Livelihood.
Caryn was born in Brooklyn, and grew up there and in Manalapan, N.J. until she headed west to study journalism at the University of Missouri, where she got a labor history degree instead. She continued west to Lawrence, Kansas, where she fell in love with the land, community, and her husband.
Caryn received her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, and she has trained in organizational development and group process, grassroots organizing, poetry therapy, and teaching yoga. She taught for 33 years on the college level, at Goddard College, Haskell Indian Nations University, and the University of Kansas. She is the recipient of Kansas Arts Fellowship in Poetry, the Rocky Mountain National Park artist-in-residency, and other honors.
Caryn lives in the country, just south of Lawrence, Kansas with her husband, bioregional writer Ken Lassman, a rescue border collie with abandonment issues and an tiny alpha cat who rules the roost, plus three adult children who visit to the delight of all the humans and animals.
The Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Collection
The archive of Caryn’s work, writing, and life is housed in Special Collections of Pittsburg State University’s Leonard A. Axe Library. Access the digital version of the collection.
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is a visionary. She bases her writing within communities for community empowerment. I cannot tell how strongly I feel that we are lucky to have her here for her significant and sustained contributions to the word arts. ~ Denise Low, 2007-09 Kansas Poet Laureate
Selected Venues & Communities
Organizations & Businesses: Google Tech Team, Turning Point, KS.; Institute of Culture of Moreles, Mexico; Sky Island Alliance, AZ; Community Mercantile, KS; Guadalupe Center, KS; Delaware Street Commons Cohousing, KS; Douglas County Housing Authority, KS.; Kansas Historical Museum, plus hundreds of libraries, bookstores, community, writing, and art centers, across the country.
Colleges: Institute of Policy and Social Research at the University of Kansas; State University of New York at Potsdam; Truman State University, MO: Pittsburg State University, KS: Johnson County Community College, KS: Brookdale Community College, N.J; and ebanon Community College, KS.
Medical Centers: Walter Reed Military Medical Center, The Menninger’s Foundation, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Stormont-Vail Medical Center, Lawrence Memorial Hospital, University of Kansas Medical Center.
Conferences: The Power of Words, International Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, National Storytelling Network, Associated Writing Programs, Continental Bioregional Congress, National Association for Poetry Therapy, The Examined Life: Writing & the Art of Medicine, National Association of Drama Therapy, Poetry and Politics Poetry Laureate Conference.
Who am I? Who knows, but here is "How I Got This Way" for an inside-out view of how I fell in love with poetry and kept following its path.
I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and working with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg for the past decade, and have rarely encountered a more insightful, compassionate, or integrous teacher and coach. Like the poet David Whyte, Caryn brings decades of experience as a writer to her work with organizations and individuals seeking outside-the-box wisdom, and creative solutions to problems in the workplace. An expert in guiding clients toward their “right livelihood,” she combines practical advice with artistic principles that focus on innovation, well-being, and creative freedom.
~ Mark Matousek, writer, teacher, and founder of The Seekers Forum
Caryn in the News
Caryn’s publications and workshops have been featured in the Boston Herald, Huffington Post, Psychology Today, Kansas City Star, Washington Post, Paris Herald, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Writers Weekly, Scholastic, Seventeen, The Jewish Chronicle, and strangely enough, Cosmo Girl.
Photo by Stephen Locke
Selected Interviews, Features & Reviews
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Five Ways Writing Can Make You Braver and Happier by Harriet Lerner in Psychology Today
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Author interview with Cheryl Unruh on A Rumor of Coyotes
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Kevin Willmott and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg on Kansas Public Radio Presents
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Here’s What Happens When a Poet and Photographer Chase Kansas Weather on New Letters on the Air
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Voice of Beauty: Interview with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg in Psychology Today
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From Poetry to History on KCUR radio
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Yes Magazine — “Love Leads Into Mystery: The Heartbreak and Hope of Raising a Child With Asperger’s”
Recent Poems Published
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"Things Angels Might Do" in Minyan Magazine (nominated for Best of the Net)
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Three Poems in Wilderness House Literary Review
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“What the Sky is Made Of” and “You Rise Up to Meet the Falling World” in Terrain Magazine
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"True Love" and "We Live in Light" in Half and One Magazine