Joanna Yonder (she/her) is a public librarian, working writer, and nondenominational ordained minister. She also lives as caretaker on a 200-acre ranch outside of Telluride, CO, where she communes with the mountains, a sizable garden, bees, livestock, and no small parliament of great horned owls. Joanna came to this corner of the wild west following a fierce love of climbing ice and rock, and stayed to work at Telluride’s library. She is currently the Poet Laureate of San Miguel County.
Joanna found poetry at a very young age, when she realized it gave her freedom. She’s been chasing that ever since. We asked Joanna a few questions:
WHAT IS YOUR CHOSEN ARTISTIC MEDIUM?
Words. Primarily.
WHAT ARE YOU READING/WATCHING/OR LISTENING TO?
As a librarian, I'm always bringing home books that rotate through my nightstand stack. I'm currently reading an unexpectedly great meditation on seasonal change by British gardener Marc Hamer—Seed to Dust—and also bell hooks' All About Love: New Visions.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE AWKWARD GROWTH MOMENT OR BARRIER-BREAKING TIME?
Honestly, I'm in it! Being selected as our county poet laureate has been a huge honor and I also try to talk about the impostor syndrome that comes with it. This role has been enormously expanding and joyful and intimidating by turns. I've presented at least two public poetry projects since January of 2022, and you know what I've learned? I love being on stage, sharing or publishing writing—but even more, I love to pass the mic. I love to help facilitate other folks' journey into expressing themselves. It's been a revolution!
WHAT KEEPS YOU ENGAGED AND MOVING FORWARD?
I'm amazed by the ways our community evolves and shifts over time. Working at the library, I have the privilege to collaborate constantly with so many individuals, nonprofits, social institutions, and other creators who shape our spaces every day. It makes me really proud and grateful to do work here.
Also, on that topic, I really celebrate being a working writer: it's by no means my paid job to be a poet or to write. All my other work—as a librarian, as a community social organizer, as a facilitator, and as a caretaker & rancher—deeply informs what I write. Even if someday in the future I could make it my full-time practice to write, I would still want to be working in other realms. It keeps me out of the vacuum, you know?
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CURRENT AND UPCOMING EVENTS, RELEASES, OR ANTICIPATED PROJECTS!
I'm amped for the annual Mycolicious, Mycoluscious, Mycological Poetry Show, a collaboration between the Mushroom Festival, Talking Gourds Poetry Program, and the Wilkinson Public Library. That's coming up this Friday 8/18 at the Sheridan Opera House, and it's always a beautiful show featuring writers & performers from all over the nation & world. We'll celebrate nature, fungi, and their relationship with humanity. If you love the spoken word, the natural world, and a rowdy time with amazing and creative minds, then come stomp and clap and yodel with us!
I'm also working on an online space where more of my poetry, prose and performances can be found. My website, wordswesterly.org, will be live very soon, where I'll be publishing never-before-shared works, old works and excerpts from my yet-to-be-published desert lovers' book. Fun stuff like that.