Bio
Willa Schneberg is a poet, ceramic sculptor, interdisciplinary artist, photographer and curator. She is the author of six collections, and received the Oregon Book Award for In the Margins of the World. Storytelling in Cambodia was inspired by her time working for the U.N. in the early 90’s. The Naked Room is her new collection. In 2018, she was poet-in-residence in Kathmandu, Nepal, and in 2023 will be conducting seminars and reading in Glasgow, Scotland. Her poetry and visual art have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including American Poetry Review; Salmagundi; Tricycle: The Buddhist Review; Moment Magazine; Bellevue Literary Review, Harpur Palate, The Citron Review, Poet Lore; Kosmos Journal; The Best Fantasy and Horror Anthology; the Tikkun Anthology and Bridging The Waters III, in which poems were translated into Korean. She has been a poetry fellow at Yaddo, MacDowell, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Ireland and in 2019 she was in-residence at the Mudhouse Residency, Crete. She served as a board member for Calyx, Inc, which publishes a journal of art and literature by women. Her poems were heard on Garrison Keillor’s “The Writer’s Almanac.” Her letterpress chapbook The Books of Esther was produced in conjunction with the eponymous interdisciplinary exhibit about the life of her mother who “spoke” through writing, which was on view at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. In 2017, she curated an exhibit for the same institution: “Ritual Unmoored: The Works of Six Jewish Ceramists.” In 2018, she was poet-in-residence in Kathmandu, Nepal. She is also a psychotherapist in private practice in Portland, Oregon, where she lives with her husband. Willa presents at literary festivals, gives craft talks and readings, and conducts writing workshops nationally and internationally.
This is a snippet from “Grief.”
Library of Congress
“Grief” was read at the Library of Congress series Poetry at Noon, along with other poems on “Magic & Magicians,” October 9, 2007. “Grief” was published in Chance of a Ghost; The Nineteenth Annual Best Fantasy & Horror Anthology; Storytelling in Cambodia and Rending the Garment.
Selected Publications/Anthologies
- Passagers Journal, read by Jon Schor, Nov 1, 2022
- Radical Teacher: A Socialist, Feminist, And Anti-Racist Journal On The Theory And Practice Of Teaching
- Beltway Poetry Quarterly Review
- Minyan: A Literary Magazine in Support of the Jewish Community
- Tikkun Magazine; Voices of Tikkun Podcast
- The Voice of Thy Brother’s Blood, anthology—
Willa’s poem With A Small Typewriter was translated into Hebrew - Fireweed: Poetry of Oregon to read and hear the poem in its entirety you must subscribe
- Gyroscope Review: Crone Issue (pg.72)
- The Citron Review
- Kosmos Journal for Global Transformation
- American Poetry Review
- Bellevue Literary Review
- Poet Lore
- Calyx: A Journal of Art & Literature by Women
- International Psychoanalysis
Honors
The full-length collection,The Naked Room, was published in Jan. 2023 from Broadstone Books
“Iron Lung” received Honorable Mention in the 2022 Passager Poetry Contest with publication in their Contest Issue
Commended by the judges in the 2022 (International) FPM-Hippocrates Health Professional Prize for Poetry and Medicine; Publication in the 2022 Hippocrates Awards Anthology, United Kingdom Medical Society
A finalist in the 2021 Ex Ophidia Press Poetry Book Contest
Designated a "Noteworthy Runner-up" for the 2021 Sally Albiso Poetry Book Award
Final Judge Calyx Journal's 2021 & 2015 Lois Cranston Memorial Prize
One of 15 long-listed for Poetry International's 2020 Cavafy Prize
Runner up in the 2020 Phyllis L. Ennes Poetry Contest sponsored by the Skagit River Poetry Foundation
Honorable Mention for Poetry in the 46th New Millennium Writing Awards & for Prose in the 47th New Millennium Writing Awards
2019 Mudhouse Residency, Agios Ioannnis, Crete
Curator of the annual reading of Oregon Jewish Writers, now in its 23rd year
Recipient of three Professional Development Grants from the Regional Arts & Culture Council of Oregon. Travel funded for 2018 poetry residency in Kathmandu
Curator, “Ritual Unmoored: Six Jewish Ceramists,” Broadway Gallery, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon. Was on view March 22 - Sept. 17, 2017
Former Board Member 2013 - 2015, Calyx: A Journal for Literature and Art by Women, Corvallis, OR
2015 & 2004 - Reuben Rose International Poetry Competition Judge
Nominated for 2014 “Best of the Net” prize by VoiceCatcher, an online literary journal
2014 Jewish Book Council Network Writer
Keynote Speaker, 8th Annual Poet's Round-up, Port Orford, Oregon
Poems Read by Garrison Keillor on the Writer’s Almanac – most recently 2020
Recipient of the 2002 Oregon Book Award in Poetry
Recipient of two Fellowships in poetry through (Oregon) Literary Arts
Received the Barbara Deming Memorial Money for Women Award
Book signing NYC
Selected Exhibits Portland
Ritual Unmoored: Works of Six Jewish Ceramists Broadway Gallery: For more information please click here.
Shadowboxes at the Glyph Cafe
Books of Esther: An interdisciplinary exhibition of one woman who “spoke” through writing Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
From Pol Pot to Free Elections: photographs, poetry, Memorabilia, ceramic sculpture relating to Cambodia Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center
Eternal Flame Torah Pointer- Permanent Display Havurah Shalom
