LA JOLLA, California — Thanks to the friendship between Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices Committee member, Michael Mark and San Diego’s Poet Laureate, Ron Salisbury — Salisbury has agreed to lead a workshop for ten poets on January 31, under the auspices of the committee, a program of the Astor Judaica Library of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center.
The first ten poets to sign up will fill the ten slots. There will be a nominal charge of $15 per participant.
Ron Salisbury is the first poet ever to be named as San Diego Poet Laureate. In that capacity, he is charged to write original poems about and inspired by the city of San Diego, participate in public readings and develop a community-wide project aimed at elevating poetry in the everyday lives of local residents.
San Diego’s Poet Laureate is not only an acclaimed published poet, but he is a seasoned teacher of poetry. He currently teaches classes and runs workshops at San Diego Writers, Ink in Liberty Station.
Born in 1943, Salisbury grew up in rural Maine.
Although there were few books in the house, his mother had a flair for rhyming that impressed her son. When his seventh-grade teacher introduced the class to Robert Frost’s poems and assigned the students to write their own verse, Salisbury asked his mother for advice. From that weekend on, he wanted to be a poet.
It was not until he was in his mid-thirties, while living in Northern California, that he attended college, earning bachelor degrees in business and poetry and master degrees in business management and liberal studies.
In Petaluma, he opened a string of coffee shops, but competition from Starbucks forced him to close them. In 2008, Salisbury moved to San Diego, where he earned another degree, a masters of fine arts in poetry. His collection of poems won an annual contest by the North Carolina publishing company, Main Street Rag, and that collection became his first book, “Miss Desert Inn.”
To sign up for the Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices Poetry Workshop conducted by Ron Salisbury, contact Melanie Rubin, (858) 362-1141, melanier@lfjcc.org.
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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com