Kirsten Casey is a California Poet in the Schools, and is Poet Laureate Emerita of Nevada County, after serving from 2021-2025. She earned her MA in creative writing from San Francisco State University in 1992, working with Frances Mayes, her thesis advisor. Her poetry collection, Ex Vivo: Out of the Living Body, published by Hip Pocket Press in 2012, is inspired by odd stories, remarkable words, and the mysteries of the human body. Her second book of poetry, (with the working title Grieving Birds,) explores historical and literary characters struggling with social media. In 2019, she taught high school workshops as part of the Academy of American Poets Laureate fellowship granted to Molly Fisk, to facilitate the poetry anthology, California Fire & Water, which responds to California’s climate crisis. She was a co-editor of the book, which includes one of her poems. She was an associate editor of the 2024 book Small, Bright Things, a collection of 100-word stories by teens, published by Heinemann, with local author and editor, Kim Culbertson. Her latest manuscript, Grieving Birds, was a finalist for the Gunpowder Press Dryden-Vreeland Poetry Prize. She has lived in Nevada City for over 32 years with her husband, and has three adult children, who patiently assist her with technology.
Nevada County Poet Laureate Emerita
April 2021-March 2025
On accepting her nomination as 2021 Poet Laureate, Kirsten Casey said: “I am honored and thrilled to be this year’s nominee for Poet Laureate of Nevada County. As a 30–year resident of Nevada City, I truly consider this my home. After over a year of isolation, fear, and civil unrest, it is more important than ever to recognize what connects us as a community… My goal is to make poetry “live” again, in person, in this artistic haven. Hopefully, as the county opens up, I can host events to enhance the experience of poetry: creating it, sharing it, reading it—together. This will be a time of healing and recovery, and I particularly want to reach out to the children and teens who have had an overwhelming amount of time in front of a screen over the past 12 months.”
Learn more at nevadacountyarts.org
Ex Vivo
Ex Vivo (out of the body) is a crazy quilt of a poetry book. What could unify such a varied collection of narrators — inebriated monks, famous painters, suicides, bad girls, and a woman who feels no pain? What could stitch together subjects as disparate as organ donors, middle names, anonymous corpses, keyholes, the “suspicious grieving,” pocket knives, and trees? In this collection, the binding thread is language itself, which functions not only as an instrument of communication, but as character, as place, as metaphor, as architecture, as song.
Cheryl Dumesnil, author of In Praise of Falling, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize
The book can be purchased at Harmony Books in Nevada City, or ordered through The Bookseller in Grass Valley.
Events
October Poetry Happy Hour is Thursday, October 15th, 5:30-7. Please join us for low pressure poetry appreciation, with generative poetry prompts (no critiques.) If you are curious, you are welcome!
On Saturday, September 19th, from 10-11, join me online for a poetry circle via the link below. I will read poetry, and will be in conversation with my friend, Betsy G. Fasbinder. Link is below:
https://www.inquiryattheedge.com/poetrycirclekirstencasey
Below is “Moon Poem,” published in July, with Anacapa Review. It is based on lines of lyrics from Phoebe Bridgers’ song “Moon Song,” from the album Punisher. The lines I used are: “a dog with a bird at your door,” and “the killer doesn’t understand.” Give her new album, Lost Weekend, a listen. Her songwriting is stellar, and there are lots of great lyric prompts.
Kirsten Casey
Moon Poem
after Phoebe Bridgers “Moon Song”
I am not a dog with a bird at your door.
Really, I am the yellow bird in the mouth of a dog.
I am the color of marigolds in August, and I am still alive,
but I hold my breath. My feathers are almost
as light as my bones, which are full of the same air
as the sky. I can smell the dog breathing, his rotting back teeth
pressing against my skin, not too deep yet.
I am holding still, I am playing dead, I am thinking of eggs.
My eggs back in the nest: freckled, the palest blue. I spent so much
time collecting ribbons and twigs, made no
ordinary nest. I am thinking of the pine forest,
my daily route there. I am holding still, like the stones
I see in the river, unmoving in the current. I want to be as quiet
as moonflowers, pale blossoms unable to sleep
in the dark. I am holding still, but flying
in my thoughts. Maybe the dog is giving me
as some kind of limp offering, and I will end up
by a kitchen window, in a wrought iron cage, covered
with a dishtowel. I have seen birds like this,
birds that miss the rain. What an irony to be free, collecting
common worms, and then find myself in the jaws of a dog
who doesn’t have to hunt to survive. My eggs
will remain silent. Three fading moons, cold
and distant. I want to sing this sad song to my captor,
but it will only signal that I am still alive.
What could I trade him for my life?
I am holding still, because the killer
doesn’t understand.
Kirsten Casey has been a California Poet in the Schools for over 20 years, and was poet laureate of Nevada County, California, from 2021-2025. Her first poetry collection, Ex Vivo: Out of the Living Body, was published by Hip Pocket Press in 2012. Her newest manuscript, Grieving Birds, was a finalist for the Gunpowder Press Dryden-Vreeland book prize. She is a committee member of the Sierra Poetry Festival, and hosts a monthly community poetry happy hour. Kirsten is also coordinator of an annual high school poetry reading, in collaboration with California State Parks, at the historic Empire Mine, in Grass Valley, California.
Watch my latest interview on YouTube (my amazing niece, Jane Fraser, is producing this new series):
You can watch some of my readings from past Ekphrastic poetry events at ASiF Studio, in Grass Valley, below in the YouTube links. This is an annual reading in cooperation with Nevada County Arts Council and is a recurring fringe event for the Sierra Poetry Festival. Plan on joining us next year as we create art from art.
https://youtu.be/JPtxZHGTdM0?si=nS4fOxTsn7jkgMQm
I just found this TEDx talk that I gave in Nevada City 12 years ago, if you want to watch:
The tenth annual Sierra Poetry Festival happens next April 18th, 2026 at Grass Valley’s Center for the Arts. Here is a link to the website, so that you check in as details develop: https://www.sierrapoetryfestival.org.
Listen to my interview on Curtain Call with Cy Musiker:
Here are some poems from Nevada County poets who contributed to Lee Herrick’s California Poet Laureate project: https://capoetlaureate.org/nevada-county One of my poems is included in the website.
My poem, “How to Feed the Grieving,” was selected to be included in the anthology, Savor: Poems for the Tongue, by publisher Friendly City Books. https://www.friendlycitybooks.com/savor
I was a Gunpowder Press finalist for my second collection of poetry, Grieving Birds. https://gunpowderpress.com/poetry-prizes/dryden-vreeland-prize
I have some new poems up on the online anthology Interlitq Californian Poets Part 6. Enjoy reading them here:
https://www.ladigereview.com/california-poets
I composed a poem for the dedication of the Wildflower Ridge Preserve, a new part of the Bear Yuba Land Trust. If you’d like to learn more about it:
Read my Culture Connection interview: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58ff9007579fb392e08b22fe/t/645554b22625a334dc9b30b9/1683313852429/May+23+GVNC+Culture+Connection.pdf
Read about my second Poetry in Parks event, held at the Empire Mine in Grass Valley, in collaboration with the Cal Parks department:
Read about our annual “Five Nevada County Women” poetry reading:
I was a guest on The Morning Glory Project podcast. Give it a listen:
Listen to the eulogy I wrote for my sweet Dad, read by Kelly Corrigan, on her podcast “Thanks for Being Here:”
Read about all of the wonderful events that happened April 2022, for National Poetry month:
https://www.theunion.com/news/poetry-in-the-parks-empire-mine-event-kicks-off-poetry-month-readings/
https://www.theunion.com/entertainment/poetry-in-the-park-this-weekend-at-empire-mine/
https://www.theunion.com/opinion/columns/don-rogers-poetrys-only-the-start/
https://www.theunion.com/entertainment/sierra-poetry-festival-returns-this-weekend/
Read my poem about The Donation Day Parade in Grass Valley:
https://www.theunion.com/opinion/columns/kirsten-casey-ode-to-donation-day/
My reading of “What the Bridge Knows” at the reopening of the Bridgeport Bridge on November 4th:
https://www.facebook.com/100000459795718/videos/pcb.6722921811066412/551446255954381
A recent story, published by 100 Word Story, on their website:
Read about my opening day poem for the 2021 Nevada County Fair: https://www.theunion.com/news/lorraines-lowdown-never-too-old-for-gold/
Read about when the Madelyn Helling Library invited me to have a community poetry pop up in June: https://www.facebook.com/NevadaCountyArts/posts/reposted-nevada_county_library-poet-laureate-of-nevada-county-kirsten-casey-visi/4527815457239326/