Elizabeth Carothers Herron

Elizabeth Says

My diverse interests have taken me into ecology through salmon studies, into the Pleistocene through the earliest cave art, from there to the relationship between psychology and creativity and to the origin of art. I write about nature, aesthetics, imagination and how these are interrelated. As a poet, I am interested in the details of a life --the light that falls through leaves outside a window as a man watches his bride move toward him; the sound of the old dog running, his nose lifted to the wind; the dead fawn on the road driving home from work. Our hours are made of such small awarenesses as we move through the larger events of arrivals and departures, acts of love, and moments of loss that make a life.

Dreams and creative work have guided and enlivened my life as long as I can remember. Because of this, I have faith in the process of engaging with images presented by the unconscious. In my experience, images are like keys; they allow us to enter into contact with our emotional truth. They also offer guidance, warnings, and affirmation. Each dream is like a birthday present waiting to be unwrapped, each image a mystery to be unraveled. It is much the same with creative work. We chose our direction and aim. What happens next is the combustion of known with the unknown: the dreamer with the dream, the artist with the work.

Recent Activities

Elizabeth will be at Sebastopol Center for the Arts to offer DREAMS and POETRY as Gestures of the Soul A Workshop for Writer¹s on March 24th
7-9 pm @ 6780 Depot Street in Sebastopol
Visit <http://www.sebarts.org/index.htm> or call 829-4797 for details.

"The Village of Speechless Understanding" - a multimedia dramatization of Elizabeth's short story by that title. This is a collaborative work with videographer Julian Blair, movement artist Corlene VanSluizer, vocalist Fran Carbonaro and musician/sculptor Cricket.

Elizabeth at The French Garden, November 2007.
Opening reader is West County poet, Jeremy Raikes.

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Biographical Notes

Publication - Elizabeth’s essays have appeared in Parabola, Orion, ReVision and EarthSpirit . She is the author of five small books of poetry, and a collection of short fiction. In a review of Face to Face, Women Writers on Faith Mysticism and Awakening, Fran Shaw described her essay writing as "taking the ME out of memoir so the Self shines through.” (Parabola) Her collaboration with sculptor Bruce Johnson led to the writing of The Poet’s House, a book length poem <formandenergy.com>.

Performance - Elizabeth’s long history of performance and readings includes the design and execution of complete performances with dancers and musicians in nightclubs, theaters, and University settings. She is currently working on two collaborative projects with musicians and movers and visual artists, combining text with images, movement and sound.

Elizabeth’s Awards include: the Hugh Luke Fiction Award and finalist in the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction; the San Francisco Small Press Traffic award for poetry, the Eve of Saint Agnes Poetry Award, Honorable Mention in the The Wildwood Prize in Poetry, and finalist in the Felix Pollak Prize for poetry. Her PEN Syndicated Fiction Project short story was also the first chosen for PEN's radio series. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2000. She has been a resident at The Mesa Retreat for Writers in Point Reyes California.

Teaching - As Professor of Arts & Humanities at Sonoma State University, Dr. Elizabeth Herron taught courses as far ranging as Dreams & Imagination, Ecological Identity, Creative Writing and Creative Process (cross-listed in Theater, Fine Art, English, Music, and the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies).