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About the Poet and Painter
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Carolyn (at right) with her students
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Carolyn
Kreiter-Foronda is Virginia's current Poet Laureate. She is also a
painter, sculptor and educator. In 1969, she graduated from Mary
Washington College (now the University of Mary Washington) with a BA
in English. She holds two masters degrees and a
Ph.D. from George Mason University, where she received the first
doctorate presented by the school. |
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In 1992, Carolyn was named a Virginia Cultural Laureate for her contributions
to American Literature.
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"To be a Virginia Cultural Laureate is not just to excel in a particular
field, but to fortify the whole of our commonwealth. Renaissance men and
women are no ancient ideal, they are our future.”
-- Governor L. Douglas Wilder,
Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 8, 1992 |
As evidenced below, her work has earned widespread
recognition across the Commonwealth and beyond:
- three Artist-in-Education grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts
- an Arts-on-the Road grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts
- three Pushcart Prize nominations
- an Edgar Allan Poe First Place poetry award
- First Place poetry award, Art & Writing Collaborative, Chesapeake Bay Branch of the National League of American Pen Women
- a Council for Basic Education fellowship award
- a Meritorious Educator Award from the Springfield Rotary Club
- the Fairfax County Public Schools’ Hodgson Award in English
- a National Scholastic Teacher Portfolio Award
- a VERA Award for her doctoral dissertation
- an Outstanding Scholarship and Service award from George Mason University.
- Resolution of Appreciation awarded by Virginia's Board of Education
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2007 Alumna of the Year Award for outstanding professional achievement and
dedication to George Mason University.
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2007 University of Mary Washington Alumna of the Year Award for her advocacy on
behalf of the arts as Virginia's Poet Laureate, as well as her dedication as a
poet/artist to hundreds of students in Virginia's schools.
Her poems and writings appear widely in such magazines, journals, and anthologies as Nimrod International Journal, The Ledge, Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry, WPFW 89.3 FM Poetry Anthology, Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, Dominion Review, Hispanic Culture Review, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Mid-American Review, Antioch Review, Passages North, The Journal of Teaching Writing and The Writing Center Journal. She has published four books of poetry, Contrary Visions (under the name, Carolyn Kreiter-Kurylo), Gathering Light, Death Comes Riding, Greatest Hits, and is the
co-editor of the anthology, In a Certain Place.
Her paintings have been exhibited throughout Virginia in schools, libraries, nursing and retirements homes, universities, public and
private art galleries. Reproductions of her paintings and sculpture appear on the covers
and pages of her books.
Currently, she lives in Hardyville, Virginia, with her husband, Patricio. |
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Carolyn
Kreiter-Foronda