Ruth Forman

Ruth Forman is an award-winning writer living in L.A.  her first book of poetry, We Are the Young Musicians (Beacon Press, 1993), won the Barnard New Women Poets Prize and wide acclaim for its fresh approach to poetry.  Her second book, Renaissance (Beacon Press, 1997), won the 1999 Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Poetry, and received a nomination by Beacon Press for the Pulitzer Prize.  In 2001, Forman was awarded the Durfee Artist Fellowship.  Her work is widely anthologized.

Forman works to inspire others with the power and magic of language, frequently collaborating on music, dance, theater, and film projects.  She provides readings and workshops to a wide variety of audiences, and over the past 13 years has presented her poetry nationally and internationally in forums such as the United Nations, the National Black Arts Festival, National Public Radio, PBS’s The United States of Poetry, as well as numerous K-12, university and community literary programs.  She is currently completing her first novel, Mama John.

Forman teaches at the Voices of our Nation Arts Foundation, a program hosted by the University of San Francisco that nurtures developing writers through the traditions, perspective, and aesthetics of writers of color.