poet and educator
Phyllis Meshulam first went to Italy, where her father had been stationed during World War II, at five. Threads of those journeys are woven into her book of poems, Land of My Father’s War, from Cherry Grove Collections, winner of an Artists Embassy International Prize.
Meshulam became the Sonoma County Poet Laureate in April of 2020 and will serve until spring of 2022.
She is a veteran teacher for California Poets in the Schools. Seen here at the Watershed Poetry Festival in Berkeley with a student, newly published in the lesson plan book, POETRY CROSSING.
She was the Sonoma County coordinator for the nationwide recitation program, Poetry Out Loud for 13 years. Seen here with Dana Gioia, then CA Poet Laureate, who founded Poetry Out Loud during his tenure as head of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Since 2001, she has been an active participant in the Veterans Writing Group convened by Maxine Hong Kingston. She has also been been a presenter at the nation-wide writing conferences, AWP and Split this Rock. Seen here with Cal Poets colleagues at the 2014 Association of Writers and Writing Programs in Seattle.
