Stephen Meadows is a Californian poet with roots in both the Ohlone and the pioneer soil of his home state. He was born and raised on the Monterey Bay of Central California and received his secondary education at U.C. Santa Barbara, U.C. Santa Cruz where he earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree and went on to earn a Master’s Degree at San Francisco State University. 

Stephen has published poems in anthologies and collections nationwide; The Sounds of Rattles and Clappers from the University of Arizona Press, The Dirt is Red Here from Heyday Books and his first book also from Heyday Releasing the Days. Stephen is included in; Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California from Scarlet Tanager Books edited by Lucille Lang Day and Ruth Nolan and Red Indian Road West also from the same press. In addition, his poems can be found on the spoken word CD Red Smoke Dawn Wind with background music by David Blonski as well as appearing on the CD from Mignon Geli entitled Under a Buffalo Sun. 

Since the early 1990’s Stephen’s poem For the Living can be found on a bronze plaque along the Embarcadero on San Francisco’s waterfront along with other famous poets of the Bay Area and beyond. 

On Indigenous Peoples Day 2019, to celebrate the Alcatraz Canoe Journey at Aquatic Park in San Francisco, Stephen was given the honor of reading his most requested poem In the Water Over Stones. 

In addition to writing poetry, Stephen has dedicated over 30 years to public radio as a programmer of folk music from America, Canada, Ireland and the British Isles. His voice has been heard over the airwaves from radio stations in the Monterey Bay Area to the Sierra Nevada Foothills and beyond through the worldwide web. 

Stephen has done all kinds of work to support his family and himself from digging ditches to roasting coffee (Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company’s Steve’s Smooth French) to 20 plus years as an educator and mentor in the public schools where he found immense pleasure working with children of all ages as a public school aide. One of his greatest joys is reconnecting with former students who are always delighted to see him and share stories of their lives in progress. 

As a descendant of native peoples who built the Carmel Mission, gold rush families who settled in the gold country of the foothills and a farm family in Carmel Valley, Stephen’s poems are steeped in the indelible aura of California. 

His poems are concise elemental visions that capture the essential truths of his life and the beauty of the natural world around us.