Poet Carolyn Holbrook will join us for several events during our upcoming residency. On the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 23, she will talk about “Writing & Trauma.” On the afternoon of Thursday, Aug. 25, she will talk about “Finding Your Story: Telling Your Truth.” She will offer a reading from her memoir, Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify on Saturday, Sept. 3, in the evening. And she will host another evening from the anthology We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World, which she edited together with David Mura on Tuesday, Aug. 30, in the evening.

Carolyn Holbrook is a writer, educator, and an advocate for the healing power of the arts. Her memoir, Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify (Minn 2020), won the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction. She is founder and director of the Twin Cities-based conversation series, More Than a Single Story, and is co-editor with David Mura of the anthology, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World published by University of MN Press with More Than a Single Story (Minn2021). She is also co-author with Arleta Little of Dr. Josie Johnson’s memoir, Hope In the Struggle (Minn 2019). She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships. She won the Minnesota Book Awards Kay Sexton Award in 2010 and was a 50 over 50 honoree in 2016. She teaches at the Loft Literary Center and other community venues, and at Hamline University, where she won the exemplary teacher award in 2014. She is the mother of 5, grandmother of 8 and great grandmother of 2.

Carolyn Holbrook is a fiscal year 2020 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

You can find her website here.