About Ruth

Ruth Thompson is the author of Quickwater Oracles, to be published in December 2021 by Two Fine Crows Books, and four books of poetry: Whale Fall & Black Sage (2018), Crazing (2015), Woman With Crows (2012; 2013), and Here Along Cazenovia Creek (2011). She returned to writing in her fifties, after freeing herself from an abusive marriage, about which she writes in Woman With Crows. Her poems have won New Millennium Writings, Harpur Palate, Chautauqua, and other awards and have been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize.

“Whale Fall” was choreographed and performed by dancers Jenn Eng, Karen Masaki, and Colee Garr. Here Along Cazenovia Creek was choreographed and performed by Shizuno Nasu.

Woman With Crows created a new mythology of the divine feminine, from encounters with hungry ghosts to the fool-crone, “dancing what she does not know to dance.” Crazing explored physical and mental dissolution, loss of language, and the delamination of the body of earth. Whale Fall & Black Sage returned to the joyous, transformative world of Cazenovia Creek, in which nature and spirit are one. It begins with a descent into the darkness; it ends with a fully embodied Whitmanesque crow.

Ruth received a BA from Stanford University and a doctorate in English from Indiana University. In a previous life, she was a college dean in Los Angeles. She now lives near Ithaca, NY.

Poems, videos of Whale Fall, Dancing the Seasons, and other performances, and information about upcoming workshops can be found on this website.

Quickwater Oracles is currently available for pre-order everywhere. Whale Fall & Black Sage, Crazing, Woman With Crows, and Here Along Cazenovia Creek are distributed by Ingram and are available through all independent bookstores and at all online booksellers such as Amazon and Powell’s.

Some past blog highlights/interviews: My Writing Process | Q&A for TCJWW | Letting It Go | New News Now

Contact: rt@wiasi.net