After many years in Pennsylvania, poet JoAnne Growney moved in 2005 to Silver Spring, MD. JoAnne is a collaborative poet who enjoys working with visual artists, musicians, mathematicians, dancers, and other fellow travelers—to create work that transcends the individual.  Samples of shared projects are found here at this website.   In addition to keeping company with young grandchildren (newest was born 4/29/08--a baby girl in California) JoAnne's current MAJOR project involves serving as co-editor with Sarah Glaz (University of Connecticut mathematician and poet) for STRANGE ATTRACTORS:  Poems of Love and Mathematics forthcoming in October, 2008 from A K Peters, Ltd.  Click here for more information.  JoAnne is organizing a poetry reading on the anthology theme, "Love and Mathematics," on January 7, 2009 in Washington, DC. The reading will be sponsored by SIGMAA-ARTS.  Several anthology poets will read their work; the event also is open to mathematician-poets attending the conference (January 5-8) who have poems on the theme that they would like to read; for more information about deadlines and schedule, contact JoAnne.     In addition to her ongoing interests in math-poetry and ekphrastic poetry, the current CLIMATE CRISIS  is one of JoAnne's big concerns.  This topic is starting to show up in her poems--though she finds it hard to write about poetically.  You can find "Mitigation of Toxins" online (INNISFREE March,2007; scroll to “JoAnne Growney”). In Silver Spring, JoAnne holds ongoing poetry workshops at the Silver Spring Drop-In Center (where clients recovering from mental illness find support, friendship, and activities).  Durin 2007 JoAnne worked with Gateway's Heliport Gallery to plan poetry events that coordinate with gallery exhibits.  Click here and scroll down for poems and information about collaborative activities with Heliport Gallery.    A recent stand-out poetry event was the 4-day SPLIT THIS ROCK  festival of "Poetry of Provocation and Witness" -- for which JoAnne was a volunteer--in  Washington, DC  March 20-23, 2008.  The  website www.splitthisrock.org continues to offer information about the living poetry of this exciting event.   RECENT READINGS September, 2007 JoAnne participated (as enthsiast and featured reader) in the day-long STILLWATER POETRY FESTIVAL along Fishing Creek, north of BLOOMSBURG, PA. August 2007 JoAnne joined other Pennsylvania poets (Jerry Wemple, Marjorie Maddox, and Barbara DeCesare) anthologized in COMMONWEALTH (a Penn State University Press collection of contemporary Pennsyvania poetry) reading at CAFE MUSE (at Friendship Heights Village Center,sponsored by WordWorks).  Spring 2007  Ongoing events with Gateway's Heliport Gallery 30 November 2006 JoAnne considered "math and poetry" with the Math Honor Society at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, MD. 28 October 2006  EPaDel Section Meeting of the Mathematical Association of America at West Chester University.  Marion Cohen joined JoAnne in a Saturday morning reading of MATHEMATICAL POETRY.  10 October, 2006 for the  RIVER POETS Reading Series (Phillips Emporium, 10 East Main Street,Bloomsburg, PA).  Two special features of that reading were "Helena's Emporium" and "remembering a backyard spruce." 14 September 2006 at the Nora School in Silver Spring.  At the Nora School website are links to videotapes of the participating poets' readings. (Sometimes there may be difficulty with this viewing; Mozilla Firefox browser may work better than Internet Explorer. SCROLL DOWN to the poetry information and click on JoAnne's name.) *  *   *  *  * JoAnne Growney lives in Eastern Village, a co-housing community along the MD-DC border.  More information about her neighborhood may be found on the website maintained by the South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association. Born in Indiana County, Christmas-tree capital of the universe, JoAnne studied mathematics at Westminster College (PA),  Temple University, and the University of Oklahoma.  More recently she earned an MFA from Hunter College in Manhattan.  For twenty-five years she lived in Bloomsburg and taught mathematics at Bloomsburg University.  She was an active member of the Bloomsburg community, helping to found River Poets and Five & Dime Cultural Center. She has four grown children and seven grandchildren—in California, Maryland, or Virginia.

NEW in 2006  A LOVELY LITTLE BOOK My Dance is Mathematics, a collection of my "mathematical" poems; a printing error caused the second printing to be recalled by Paper Kite Press, but print copies are availble from JoAnne   and online HERE     and  MATHEMATICS IN POETRY, an article for JOMA, MAA's Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications.   JoAnne's work is featured in two recently published anthologies of Pennsyvania poetry: LISTENING TO WATER (2007, Foothills Publishing) and COMMON WEALTH (2005, Penn State Univ. Press)   To exchange ideas about connections among poetry,math,and other arts, contact JoAnne.