Ellen Girardeau Kempler
Experience
Judging
International Poetry Contest by Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs, a nonprofit organization promoting ocean conservation education, 2016-present
Laguna Beach Library Annual Poetry Contest, 2020
Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific Urban Ocean Poetry Contest, 2019
Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award 2017, December 2016
Early Experience
Taught seminar on playwright Lillian Hellman, University of California, San Diego, Extension, Fall 1982.
Editor, Spectrum Literary Magazine, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1979-1981
Poems in Spectrum Magazine (1988, 1983, 1982, 1979); Arrow Magazine (June, 1981); College Poetry Review (Spring, 1980)
Poetry workshops with Barry Spacks (former Santa Barbara poet laureate), Stan Rice, John M. Ridland, Alan Stephens, Edward Loomis, Robyn Bell, 1977-1981
Internship: Led quarter-long workshop for elementary students based on Kenneth Koch’s Rose, Where Did You Get That Red: Teaching Great Poetry to Children, Laguna Blanca School, Santa Barbara, Winter 1981.
Literary Travel
Attended Orion in the Wilderness Environmental Writing Workshop (by invitation only) with poet Sherwin Bitsui, Portal Arizona, March 8-14, 2020
One of 300 (out of 3000 applicants) invited to attend the first On Being Gathering with Krista Tippett, Scotts Valley, California, March 2018, with poets Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye and David Whyte, among many others
Organized small group tour to partially retrace Matsuo Basho’s footsteps in Japan. Arranged travel for three fellow book club members, September 2016.
Enrolled in Iceland Writers Retreat. Organized pre-retreat excursion to South Iceland for seven writers. April 2016.
Visited W.B. Yeats’ grave for 150th birthday; participated in Bloomsday, Dublin, Ireland, June 2015
Invited participant (open only to Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award finalists) in Poetry Master Class with former Connecticut poet laureate Marilyn Nelson at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, March 2015
Attended First Annual Poets & Writers Live event at Beyond Baroque, Venice, California, January 2014
Hosted guest of Turismo Chile on 7-day trip for writers and tour leaders to Patagonia, September 2013
Solo writing trip to Dublin and the West Cork Literary Festival, June 2011
Other events/workshops attended include the San Miguel de Allende Writers Conference (2016) and the Eat, Write, Travel Publishing Retreat at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico (2018)