New Lake County Poet Laureate McMillan is multi-faceted

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LAKE COUNTY – Mary McMillan, Lake County's new Poet Laureate, is a marriage and family therapist who also is writing a nonfiction book about her experience of building a house.


McMillan was introduced as the Lake County Poet Laureate for 2008-2009, at a Sunday evening event at the Lake County Arts Council's Main Street Gallery.


She said she plans to continue the traditions established by the previous laureates, including hosting the Writing Circle which meets on the first Thursday of each month.


Her major goal is to provide more venues where local writers can publish and share their work.


She will be a co-host with Richard Martin of a radio show on KPFZ, interviewing and reading the work of local poets and writers.


McMillan has been writing poetry since 1987, when she took a class from Richard Silberg in Berkeley, and was introduced to Poetry Flash Magazine.


She attended Squaw Valley Community of Writers, where she studied with Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Galway Kinnell and Sharon Olds.


She coordinated a San Francisco group of poet alumni from Squaw Valley, which met monthly for four years. During this time, she also published poems in several local publications, including the Santa Clara Review and Tomcat.


In 1997, she got her master's degree in psychology, and four years later, earned her license to practice as a Marriage and Family Therapist.


She moved to Ukiah in 1999, where she practiced as a therapist until, in 2005, she transferred her practice to Lake County, and began writing poetry again.


She has worked as coordinator of a monthly writing group and participated in the Poet Laureate Writing Circle.


E-mail Sophie Annan Jensen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..


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