How It Happens

Joyce Young is the author of the poetry chapbook, How it Happens, Nomadic Press/Black Lawrence Press 2018, which was nominated for a California Book Award. Some poems from the collection were nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her writing has appeared in West Trestle Review, The Bloom, The San Francisco Public Library Poem of the Day, Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color, Smith Alumnae Quarterly, and elsewhere. In her poems and essays she focuses on what lies beneath the surface of the interactions we have with one another. She is currently at work on a memoir about family and caregiving. Joyce  has taught creative writing at museums, libraries, universities, and community arts organizations, such as The Oakland Museum of CA (OMCA), The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, MOCHA: The Museum of Children’s Art, California Poets in the Schools, and The Sonoma County Museum. Joyce has taught writing workshops for members of the Museum Educators Roundtable and conducted writing workshops for artists on developing artist statements for a permanent exhibition in the History Galleries at OMCA. Joyce currently teaches English and facilitates Books & Bites, a virtual student book club at Pacific Preparatory School. Joyce taught Composition, Research Writing, Philosophy, and Sociology at John F. Kennedy University (JFKU) for 6 years. In addition,  she served as a Writing Specialist in the JFKU Writing Center for 14 years. She taught English in the Mills College Upward Bound program for 3 years and served as a writing coach for students working on college and scholarship application essays. Joyce  is an alumna of Community of Writers, Bay Area Writers Workshop, and VONA. She has been awarded writing fellowships at Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and received grants from the California Arts Council, the Writers on Site Program of Poets & Writers, Inc., and Writing the Other. Joyce holds a Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Consciousness Studies from John F. Kennedy University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Smith College. In her spare time she practices Yoga and T’ai Chi, walks distances, hikes, and points her camera toward anything or anyone that interests her, a hobby that she has enjoyed for several decades. She lives and writes in Berkeley, CA.