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About Julia Connor
Julia Connor, Sacramento Poet Laureate Emeritus (2005-2009), is noted for her works as a poet, sculptor, and painter. Born in New York on October 31, 1942, Connor relocated extensively in her youth and moved to Burlingame, California with her parents as a teenager, lived abroad in Paris after high school, returned stateside in 1964 to the Los Angeles Metropolitan area and then moved to Sacramento in 1969. In Sacramento, Connor volunteered at Governor Brown's office and was later appointed Deputy Director of the newly formed California Arts Council. She served from 1977-1981. While overseeing art projects for the Council, Connor's interest and passion for poetry reawakened. In 1981, at the advice of poet Gary Snyder, Connor enrolled at the New College of California, Poetics Program in San Francisco. Under the tutelage of well-known contemporary poets such as Robert Duncan, Diane DiPrima, and David Meltzer, she graduated with a Master of Arts in Poetics in 1987.
Since 1988, Connor has taught poetry in a wide variety of situations, from graduate MFA programs such as Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics to California State prisons. She teaches poetry workshops for all levels of experience, presenting at locations such as Nathan Mayhew seminars, Martha's Vineyard, and Emerson College, England. In addition, she has taught private workshops in Sacramento. Connor writes poems prolifically. Her poetry reflects the conventions of free verse with its natural speech, fluidity and improvisation. Some books of note include The Delta Poem (1987), X-ing the Acheron (2002), Oar (2009), Gradual Map (1999), A Canto for the Birds (1995), and Corresponding Flowers (1985). Connor holds a certificate in ceramics from Chouinard Institute Los Angeles (1968), where she studied under master potter Ralph Bacerra. She began painting in 1985. During a residency under the California Arts Council from 1996-1999, Connor produced the Voices Project with participants of the Women's Wisdom project, founded by Laura Ann Walton. The project provided a platform for women who, despite overwhelming challenges, had the courage to engage in the arts of ceramics, painting, installation, and finally with the help of actress Myrtle J. Stephens, a theatrical production known as "Shatterproof." "Shatterproof" debuted August 20, 1999, at Celebration Arts Theatre. As Poet Laureate, Connor ran something called the Postcard Project, that was loosely based on Dada Mail Art. It included a citywide roaming art workshops where participants produced postcards that were later mailed and altered through the USPS. Art supplies were provided. Working with her volunteer committee, she also produced a deck of playing cards, each card containing a hand-drawn portrait of a Sacramento poet active from the years 1979-2005. Finally, she conceived and with the help of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission and Department of Parks and Recreation realized the creation of Poet Laureate Park, Sacramento's first public art installation devoted to literature located in South Natomas. It consists of six standing steel sculptures created by sculptor Troy Corliss. Each sculpture is a excerpt from Sacramento's first six Poet Laureates. Connor is a 2026 recipient of the Creative Growth Fellowship from the Sacramento Office of Arts and Culture. |