About

Finding Home

My life as a poet, teacher, book artist, and outdoor adventurer is rooted in the far north. I have lived in a log house, nestled in a birch forest outside Fairbanks, Alaska for almost four decades. My sense of place, my sense of home is grounded in the boreal forest. I have also been a fortunate traveler traversing some of Alaska’s wild landscapes: the Alaska Range, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Coastal Plain, western Brooks Range, and Prince William Sound. Who I am and what I write has been shaped over the thousands of miles I’ve hiked, backpacked, canoed, kayaked, packrafted, skied, snowshoed, and sailed. In all kinds of weather, in every season. I am challenged, changed, and inspired by the natural world. Many of my poems begin their germination on wilderness adventures.

Before landing here, Wisconsin, Colorado, Minnesota, and Nebraska had been home. Teaching elementary school for 32 years was a passion and a joy for me. Though I am retired from public school teaching, gratefulness for the decades I spent with young children and adult colleagues still thrums in me.

Collaborations

For the past ten years, I have been a contributing artist/writer and curator with In a Time of Change (ITOC), a University of Alaska Fairbanks collaborative arts-humanities-science program. It was an honor to be part of three different ITOC projects: Microbial Worlds, Boreal Forest Stories, and Boreal Echoes. Being in community with ITOC artists, writers, and scientists for a decade has stimulated and fed my curiosity for the natural world. Exploring the science of a subject and then figuring out how to artistically and poetically respond to what I learned has been a challenge and delight.

In the years since I retired from formal teaching, I have turned to poetry and the world of artist books. As a founding member of the Northwoods Book Arts Guild in Fairbanks, Alaska, I have found joy in the ever-varied landscape of artist books and bookmaking with a community of kindred artists.

Honors

Private collectors, the Alaska State Museum and the University of Alaska Rasmuson Library Rare Books Collection own some of my artist books. In 2025, I was honored to receive an Alaska State Council on the Arts Literary Award and to have my piece, Birches, selected for the Alaska Triennial at the Anchorage Museum. In 2017, I was privileged to be a Denali National Park Artist/Writer in Residence.

In 2015, one of my poems, Litany (For A Year), was selected as the text for a specially commissioned musical score. Hailed as “one of the most respected choral composers in America”, Steven Sametz was commissioned by the Alaska Chamber Singers to compose a piece for their 30th Anniversary celebration. Steven chose my poem as the text for his beautiful composition. It debuted in 2016 at an Alaska Chamber Singers concert conducted by David Hagen.

Publications

Along with their publication in original artist books, my poems have appeared in various journals, including Ploughshares, Alaska Quarterly Review, Ice Floe II: International Poetry of the Far North, Cirque. This Far North is my first book of poetry.

Photo credit: Jon Miller