About

Ruth Forman is the author of the children’s books Curls, Glow, Bloom, Ours, One, Like So and Light (Simon & Schuster, 2020 – 2024). She is an award-winning author of the poetry collections Prayers Like Shoes (Whit, 2009), Renaissance (Beacon, 1997), and We Are the Young Magicians (Beacon, 1993) as well as the children’s book Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon (Children’s Book Press, 2007).

Ruth has received the Barnard New Women Poets Prize, The Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award, The Durfee Artist Fellowship, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowships, the National Council of Teachers of English Notable Book Award, and recognition by The American Library Association. She provides writing workshops at retreats, schools and universities across the country and abroad, and has presented in forums such as the United Nations, the PBS series The United States of Poetry and National Public Radio.

Ruth is a former teacher of creative writing with the University of Southern California and June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley, as well as a longtime faculty member with the VONA writing program. Also an MFA graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, she often collaborates on film, music, dance, theatre, art and media projects. She is currently a professor at the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. When not writing and teaching, she practices a passion for martial arts: classical Yang family style tai chi chuan, tai chi sword, and bo staff. Ms. Forman currently lives in the Washington, DC area.