Former Kansas Poet Laureate to discuss new memoir at Topeka library

TOPEKA (KSNT) – Former Kansas Poet Laureate Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg will be reading from her new memoir and answering questions from readers at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library.

Mirriam-Goldberg was the third Kansas Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2012, appointed by then-Governor Mark Parkinson. From 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 12, Mirriam-Goldberg will be reading from her new work “The Magic Eye: A Story of Saving a Life and a Place in the Age of Anxiety,” at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library.

Her work discusses the events surrounding her 2019 diagnosis with an eye cancer and a risky plan to save her family’s fifth-generation farm. The work is about finding a deeper sense of place and community, as well as new ways to see the world.

Mirrian-Goldberg has authored and edited over 20 books of poetry, memoir, fiction and anthologies. She was a professor at Goddard College in Vermont before the institution closed in 2024, and she received her Ph.D from the University of Kansas with focuses on poetry, women’s studies and mythology.

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