About Julia:Julia Connor began study at the Poetics Program of New College of California in San Francisco at the age of forty. There, from 1981 to 1987, she studied with poets Robert Duncan, Diane di Prima, and David Meltzer. It was a formative experience.
Since 1988, she has taught poetry in a wide variety of situations from Graduate MFA Programs such as Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics where she was on the faculty, to State Prisons. She teaches poetry workshops for all levels of experience, which she has presented at places as diverse as Nathan Mayhew Seminars, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and Emerson College, Sussex, England. In addition, since 1992, she teaches private on-going workshops in Sacramento.
She holds a certificate in ceramics from Chouinard Institute, Los Angeles (1968), where she studied under master potter Ralph Baccera. She began painting in 1985 and continues to work in both media. A life-long protégée of renowned potter, poet, and educator, M.C. Richards, author of Centering in Poetry, Pottery and Person, she now serves as Ms Richards literary executor.
She was named Poet Laureate of Sacramento in April of 2005. For information about the Poet Laureate project, please click here.
Additional Awards & Honors Include:
Literary Fellowship: Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, 1996 Literary Fellowship: California Arts Council, 1997 Artist-In-Residence: California Arts Council, 1996-99 Fellowship: Centrum Arts, WA, 2002 Fellowship: Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, N.M., 2004 Fellowship: Hambidge Center for the Arts & Sciences, GA, 2006 Presenter: Nat'l Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts, 2005