Peggy Shumaker was born in La Mesa, California, and grew up in Tucson, Arizona.
She earned her B.A. in English and M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona.
Shumaker was writer in residence for the Arizona Commission on the Arts, working with prison inmates, honors students, gang members, deaf adults, teen parents, little kids, library patrons, and elderly folks.
She has given readings in art galleries, a governor’s mansion, a clearing in the woods, an abandoned bank, on reservations, in libraries, at a gold dredge, under the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon, on a riverboat, and at many bookstores, community centers, and universities .
Shumaker won a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and several awards for teaching.
She served as Poet in Residence at the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University and as President of the Board of Directors of the Associated Writing Programs.
Professor Emerita from University of Alaska Fairbanks, Shumaker was Chair of the English Department and Director of the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing.
She currently teaches at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University.
Peggy Shumaker and her husband Joe Usibelli live in Fairbanks, Alaska, and travel widely.
Bibliography:
Blaze
Underground Rivers
Wings Moist from the Other World
Braided River
The Circle of Totems
Esperanza’s Hair
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