Catherine Strisik, a poet, teacher, editor and resident of Taos since 1983 has been selected as the new Taos Poet Laureate. This year’s judges include Darien Fernandez, Town Council Member; Bernadette Track, a former model for RC Gorman for 27 years, a Pueblo potter and teacher; Christy Schoedinger Coleman, the Director of the Taos Art Museum/Fechin House; and Kate Alderete, the Director of the Taos Town Library.

Strisik said, “It is such an honor to be selected as the Taos Poet Laureate – and I’m so excited to begin my project and spread the aesthetic of poetry throughout Taos County!” The first event for the Poet Laureate is a reading (with dinner) at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House on Saturday, 1/4/20 (FMI, contact somos@somostaos.org, or call 575-758-0081). She will also read at the opening of one of the town council meetings in 2020 and SOMOS will host a reception for her and Sawnie Morris in early winter at SOMOS.

Catherine Strisik is author of three poetry collections: Insectum Gravitis (Main Street Rag, November, 2019); The Mistress, New Mexico/AZ Book Award for Poetry 2017 (3: A Taos Press, 2016); Thousand-Cricket Song (Plain View Press 2010, 2nd printing, 2016), and manuscript-in-progress Aikaterína. She is co-founder/co-editor/consulting editor of Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been awarded much including grants, honors and residencies from The Puffin Foundation, The Vermont Studio Center, Lakkos/Crete Artist Residency, Truchas Peaks Place, and most recently from Parkinson’s Life Magazine in London. Numerous publications include Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Drunken Boat, Puerto del Sol, Watershed, Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, Tusculum Review, and Poet Lore. Strisik, for over 35 years has taught group and private poetry workshops to children and adults in Taos. www.cathystrisik.com

Her poetry project is Poetry in Nature entailing installation of nature poems on stones, walls, and pillar in natural environment locations in Taos written by living poets of Taos County.