Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2017–2018, Karla Huston was a life-long resident of Wisconsin until her move to Southern California in 2020. Her poetry finds its roots in the stories we tell, those memories which define us as human. As Poet Laureate, she nurtured poetry among the elderly and memory-impaired by working with Memory Cafés.
Huston speaks regularly at book festivals, writing conferences about the public value of poetry and the arts. She taught poetry writing workshops at The Mill: A Place for Writers in Appleton for ten years and served on the board of directors for The Mill: A Place for Writers, Council for Wisconsin Writers, and the Fox Valley Writing Project.
The author of eight chapbooks of poems, Huston received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association for her full collection A Theory of Lipstick and her chapbook Grief Bone. Huston’s work has garnered many writing awards, including a Pushcart Prize for the poem “Theory of Lipstick” in 2012. Her writing has earned her residencies at the Ragdale Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Write On, Door County, and Shake Rag Alley.
Paperback: 74 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (August 25, 2022)