Shasta College Instructor Kathryn Gessner Publishes Collection of Original Poems

Shasta College congratulates English Instructor Kathryn Gessner on her recent publication Scrub Jays in Lavender, a series of original poems published through Finishing Line Press and inspired by the January 2014 drought in Northern California. Kathryn is an outdoor enthusiast and an instructor in the English Department at Shasta College, teaching Creative Writing, College Composition, Literature and Composition, and Poetry.

“Hers is a tightly bonded voice of opposites, packed with sharp details both quiet and profound.  Whether she speaks of scrub jays in the Shasta valley or the vast and scary mirror of the stars, Kathryn Gessner’s poems surprise us with their energy and their activity.”

-Heather Ross Miller, author of Celestial Navigator: Writing Poems With Randall Jarrell

“These lovely and musical poems provide entry to the mind and soul of a wise and big-hearted poet through a voice both playful and fearful, a voice at peace with and in awe of the interconnectedness of the living universe…”--Mary Troy, author of Beauties

Kathryn Gessner grew up in Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania, a rural post office town on the banks of the Delaware River. At the University of Delaware, Kathryn published her first poems in the campus magazine, Caesura. She went on to complete her MFA at the University of Arkansas. Her poetry has appeared widely in literary magazines. Kathryn served on the Board of Directors for Lotus Outreach International, from 2005-2013. Cambodia Fabrics was awarded honorable mention in nonfiction by New Millenium Writings.