The title comes from Mark Doty, who said he loved the small gesture of the sentence as a stay against the chaos, which feels appropriate for the two featured guests on today's show. Karen vanMeenen stops by to talk about Poetry Therapy: what it is, her involvement with it, and poetry's value as a tool for therapy. Patricia Roth Schwartz also joins us in the studio to talk about her experience teaching poetry in the prisons. It's an inspirational hour about poetry as a rehabilitative and therapeutic tool.
About Karen vanMeenen:
Karen is the coordinator of the Rochester Reads and Debut Novels series. She is a full time lecturer at RIT. She has been the editor of Afterimage for more than 20 years. She is a trained writing therapist and serves on the executive board of the National Association for Poetry Therapy as Publications Chair.and is reviews editor of the Journal for Poetry Therapy.
About Patricia Roth Schwartz
Patricia Roth Schwartz is a poet, memoirist, fiction writer, playwright, and editor. She has worked as a psycho-therapist in private practice and as an adjunct instructor of English and psychology at the community college level. Pat is widely published in small journals including Nimord, Clackamas Literary Review, South Carolina Review, Palo Alto Review, Iron Horse, and Blueline. From 2001 to 2005 she conducted weekly poetry workshops inside Auburn Correctional Facility. Her latest book is Charleston Girls: a memoir in poems of a West Virginia childhood, which is published by Foothills.