Bio

Music professor Joanna White has creative works in JAMA (The Poetry and Medicine Column of the Journal of the American Medical Association), The Examined Life Journal, Ars Medica, Healing Muse, The MacGuffin, Measure, Dunes Review, Cherry Tree, Cape Rock, Chariton Review, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Earth’s Daughters, Pulse, Temenos, West Texas Literary Review, Intima, Naugatuck River Review (as a poetry contest finalist), the American Journal of Nursing, and in KYSO Flash Anthologys among others. Her short and long collections have reached book contest finals multiple times, she has a December 2020 winter broadside with The Michigan Poet, and her first collection, Drumskin and Bones, has been accepted by Salmon in Ireland for March 1, 2021 publication.

While her poetry covers a range of topics, forms, and styles, it often falls under the purview of medical humanities. She explores themes of childhood medical terror, the need to be heard, the struggle to speak up, resilience, and the importance of voice in the forging of intimate connections between people. She tells us what it is like for a professional musician to have focal dystonia, a malady in which brain signals are corrupted, making the once-natural ability to play a musical instrument as illusive, as disorienting, as writing with your non-dominant hand.

Joanna White, who studied poetry with Robert Fanning and Jeffrey Bean and fiction with Darrin Doyle, has read her poetry or presented poetry at conferences of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, Michigan College English Association, National Flute Association, the Wellspring Series as a community reader, the Western Michigan University Medical Humanities Conference, and twice at the Examined Life Conference at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. She is an external reader for Medical Literary Messenger, the medical humanities journal of Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition to a doctorate in music, White has a master's degree in English Language and Literature with a creative writing emphasis from Central Michigan University. She has attended the Bear River Writer's Conference, the Iota Short Forms Conference, where she studied with Sven Birkerts and Beth Ann Fennelly for a few days, and won a Herman Wells Poetry Scholarship to attend the Indiana University Writer's Conference in summer 2019.

As a flutist, Joanna White records for Centaur Records, White Pine Music, and Blue Griffin, and has performed in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, New Mexico, Nevada, California, Washington D.C. England, Italy, Japan, and more. She writes articles for music journals and is a reviewer for Flutist Quarterly, the Journal of the National Flute Association. She has recently been combining music and poetry, presenting them together around the United States, and can be heard on the Centaur Records compact disc (see Music section on this poetry website), Poet as Muse: Music for Flute, Clarinet, and Voice.

CONTACT Joanna White

silverjcgold@gmail.com

Link to music website: Joannawhiteflute.com

CREATIVE WORK PUBLICATIONS

Poems

"What to Do About Winter." The Michigan Poet. Winter Broadside. (2020)
“Diethylstilbestrol.” Contest finalist.  Naugatuck River Review. Print. (2020)
"To My Parents." Two Hawks Quarterly. Web. (2020)
“Pockets.” Sheila-Na-Gig. Web. (2020)
“Bones.” Sheila-Na-Gig . Web. (2020)
“To My Parents.” The Shore. Web. (2020)
“From My Place in the Orchestra.” The Raven's Perch. Web. (2020)
“Breakfast Ride.” The Raven’s Perch. Web. (2020)
“Scene.” The Raven’s Perch. Web. (2020)
“My Grandfather’s Study.” The Raven’s Perch. Web. (2020)
“Breakfast Ride.” The Raven’s Perch. Web. (2020)
“Hospital 1966.” Harmony. (2020)
“Hospital Day.” Heal. Web. (2020) forthcoming

“The Proof of Fear.” Earth Hymn Anthology. Print. (2019)
“Quartet Rehearsal in the Church.” Plane Tree Journal. Web (2019)
“A Music Professor Takes a University Art Class.” Temenos Journal. Web. (2019)
“Object Permanence.” Main Street Rag. Print (2019)
“Hospital Day.” Heal. Web. (2019)
“Yoga Puzzle Poem.” Heal. Web. (2019)
“A Version of the Story in Which the Five-year-old Actually Speaks Up.” KYSO Flash. Web. (2019)
“The Proof of Fear.” KYSO Flash. Web. (2019)
“Finding Anne.” Cherry Tree. Print (2019)
"The Gift." Alexandria Quarterly Fall Portfolio. Web. (2019)

"A Constellation." Healing Muse. Print. (2018)
"Sixth Grade Science (Centripetal)" JuxtaProse. Web. (2018)
“Student to Teacher.” Measure. Print. (2018) (2018)
“Farview.” Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things. Print. (2018)
“Field Guide.” Dunes Review. Print, Web.. (2018)
“What to Do About Winter.” Wild Goose Poetry Review.  Web. (2018)
“Sunday Paper.” Wild Goose Poetry Review. Web.(2018)
“Strawberry Moon.” Meat for Tea: The Valley Review. Print and Web. (2018)
“My Daughter in Monet’s Garden.” Meat for Tea: The Valley Review. Print and Web. (2018)
“The Medical Procedure.” Meat for Tea: The Valley Review. Print and Web. (2018)
“Silenced.”Meat for Tea: The Valley Review.Print and Web. (2018)
“The Nightingale.” Special Pulse 10thAnniversary. Unpublished Print. (2018)
“Musician’s Focal Dystonia.” Snapdragon. Web. (2018)
“Orbs (Word of the Day).” Poet as Muse. Centaur Records Compact Disc. (2018)
“Peeling an Orange” Open Palm Print.(2018)
“Like a Hot Potato” Open Palm Print(2018)
“Two-Way Mirror.” West Texas Poetry Review. Print. Web. (2018)

“Musician’s Focal Dystonia.” Journal of the American Medical Association. Print. (2017)
“Isolette” American Journal of Nursing. Print. (2017)
“Musician’s Focal Dystonia Letters” Hospital Drive. Web. (2017)
      “Parts”
      “Letter to Johann Sebastian Bach”
      “To the Elephant at the Piano
      “Letter to My Lips”
      “Note to Self”
“Therapy” Hospital Drive. Web. (2017)
“The Unseen Moon” Hospital Drive. Web. (2017)
“Did You Think You Could Forget How” Hospital Drive. Web. (2017)
“Unexpected.”The Examined Life Journal. Print. (2017)
“Duet.” Dunes Review. Print. (2017)
“To the Story Girl.” Dunes Review. Print. (2017)
“MRI” Hospital Drive. Web. (2017)
“Likely Tales” or “Trope.” The Offbeat. Print. (2017)
“Sestina for my Grandmother” Poetry South. Print.(2017)
“Onomatopoia Poem (Anagram)” The Offbeat. Print. (2017)
“Dressing for the Recital.” Temenos. Online, Print. (2017)
“Our Cat with Cancer.” Bear River Review. Print. (2017)
"Michigan.” The Lyric. Print. (2017)
“We counted.” Earth’s Daughters. Print. (2017)
“Fever.” Blood and Thunder. Print. (2017)

“Knitting Kiegan’s Afghan.” Earth’s Daughters. Print. (2016)
“Cognitive Testing.” Healing Muse. Print. (2016)
“Tree Lessons.” Chariton Review. Print. (2016)
“Diner.” Glassworks. Print. (2016)
“Diner 2.” Third Wednesday. Print. (2016)
“She Played the Flute in Space.” Third Wednesday. Print. (2016)
“Museum Muse.” Third Wednesday. Print. (2016)
“Color Danger.” Blood and Thunder. Print. (2016)
“She paints.” Hummingbird. Print. (2016)
“The September I Turned Six.” KYSO Flash Anthology #2. Print.  (2016)
“White Noise.” Folia Journal. Web. (2016)
“Recalculating.”Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things. Print. (2016)
“Duets.” Emrys Journal. Print. (2016)
“Spirit Rock.” Poetalk. Print. (2016)
“Don’t Ask.”Poetalk. Print. (2016)
“Close Encounter.” Poetalk.Print. (2016)
“Lady of the Lamp.” Oyez Journal. Print. (2016)
“Masks.” (Microfiction) KYSO Flash Anthology #2. Print. (2016)

“Orbs (Word of the Day).” The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review. Print. (2015)
“What the Hummingbirds Seek.” The MacGuffin. Print. (2015)
“Notes on the Staff.” The Cape Rock. Print. (2015)“Death Mask.” Temenos: Funhouse Illusions . Web, Print. (2015)
“Overheard,”Abaton. Web and Print. (2015)
“Spring Sestina.” Cobalt, Baseball Issue. Web. (2015)
“The Nacirema.” The Intima. Web.(2015)
“Words.” Open Palm Print. Print. (2015)
“Four Pounds, Eleven Ounces.” Open Palm Print. Print. (2015)
“we told her she would have.” Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine. Web. (2015)
“Lost Melody Blues.” Temenos: Mythos, Monsters, and Madness. Print. (2015)
“X-Ray Waiting Room.” Chest Journal. Print. (2015)
“Sum of My Parts.” Chest Journal. Print. (2015)
“The Hermit Crab” [with audio] Balloons Lit Journal. Web. (2015)
“Once I Saw the Edge of the Rain.” The Write Place at the Write Time. Web. (2015)
“U.C. Berkeley, Sproul Plaza, 1969” KYSO Flash. Web. (2015)
“Masks” (Microfiction) KYSO Flash. Web. (2015)
“The September I Turned Six” KYSO Flash. Web. (2015)

“Midnight Shift.” The Examined Life Journal. Print. (2014)
“Shot straight in.” Medical Literary Messenger. Web. (2014)
“Memory Fish.” Flare: The Flagler Review. Print. (2014)
“What Poems Are For.” The Milo Review. Print. (2014)
“Forbidden Fruit.” The Milo Review. Print. (2014)
“Hospital Waiting Room.” Snow Jewel. Print.(2014)
“Mexico Pelican.” The Grey Sparrow Journal, print edition. Print. (2014)
“Place of Missing Parts.” The Grey Sparrow Journal. Web.(2014)
“Mexico Pelican.” The Grey Sparrow Journal. Web.(2014)
“Tree of Preaching to the Birds.” The Grey Sparrow Journal. Web.(2014)
“Perspectives.”Minerva Rising Literary Journal Contributor’s Blog. Web.(2014)
“Sticks and Stones (a Found Poem).” Verbatim. Web.(2014)
“Undream.” Imitation and Allusion. Web.(2014)
“Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley, 1969.” Naugatuck River Review. Print. (2014)
“Kailey’s Moon.” Minerva Rising Literary Journal. Print. (2013)
“Yosemite Valley.” The Flute View. Web. (2013)
“To the Doctor.” Ars Medica – A Journal of Medicine, the Arts, and Humanities. Print. (2013)

“Growing up on an Earthquake Fault.” The Central Review. Print and Web. (2012)

Published Creative Nonfiction
“Finding Anne.” Cherry Tree. Print. (2019)
"A Music Professor Takes a University Art Class." Temenos. Web. (2019)

Other
Blurb for Abruptio, Melissa Fournier. Poetry Box (2019)

Published Watercolor with Creative Nonfiction Component
“The Nightingale." (watercolor) Special Pulse 10th Anniversary. Unpublished Print. (2018) forthcoming
“The Nightingale.” (watercolor) Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine. Web. (2016)
“Mask Print.” (watercolor) Abaton. Web and Print. (2015)
“Mask.” (watercolor) Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine.Web. (2014)

Published Fiction
“The Purple Crayon Girl.” Blood and Thunder.Print. (2016)
“The Painter.” Skipping Stone. Print.  (2016)
“I’m Smiling At You Through It.” The Abaton. Web and Print. (2015)

Recent Published Articles
“Musician’s Focal Dystonia: Strategies, Resources, and Hope.” Pan. The journal of the British Flute Association. Reprint (Winter 2018)
“Musician’s Focal Dystonia: Strategies, Resources, and Hope.” Flutist Quarterly. Journal of the National Flute Association. (Winter 2017)

READINGS/PRESENTATIONS GIVEN

Upcoming Studio Class Presentations: University of South Florida, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Shepherd School of Music - Rice University. (Fall 2020) forthcoming

My Brave Lansing: "The Girl Without a Voice: A Story in Seven Poems." Wharton Center, East Lansing, Michigan. (November 11, 2018)

National Flute Association Convention: “Ride a Backwards Bicycle: Music, Poetry, and Brain Science.” Orlando, Florida (August 12, 2018)

PAMA: Performing Arts Medicine Association International Conference. Poster Presentation including poetry. Chapman College, Orange, California (June 30/July 1 2018)

Dunes Review Launch. Brilliant Books. Traverse City, Michigan, (April 22, 2018)

The Examined Life Conference: Full Session Reading, “The Extraordinary Task of Retraining the Brain: MFD” (poetry and creative nonfiction) University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. (October 6, 2017)

Michigan College English Association Conference: Poetry Reading,“The Artist’s Agency: Wielding Power with Words and Music.” Eastern Michigan University. (October 27, 2017)

Central Michigan University Recital/Reading: Ride a Backwards Bicycle: Reclaiming a Voice. (October 10, 2017)

Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature: Conference Panel Reading, “Brain etc.” (poetry and creative nonfiction) Michigan State University. (June 1, 2017)

Offbeat Launch, Schuler's Books, Okemos, Michigan. (April 22, 2017)

The Examined Life Conference: Full Session Reading, “Medical Creative Work: Gaining a Voice.” (poetry and creative nonfiction) University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. (October 6, 2016)

Michigan College English Association Conference: Poetry Reading, “Innovative Brain Training: Awakening silenced neural networks.” Oakland University. (October 16, 2016)

Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature: Conference Panel Reading, “Poetry for Medical Survival.” (poetry and creative nonfiction) Michigan State University (June 2, 2016)

4rdAnnual Sigma Tau Delta Conference on English Studies, Dreams, Decay, and Destruction: Poetry Reading, “Dream as Memory, Dream as Nightmare, Dream as Hope.” (Central Michigan University, October, 2015)

Michigan College English Association Conference: Poetry Reading, “Medical Creative Writing: Resolving Inner Conflict.” Davenport University,Grand Rapids, Michigan. (October 16, 2015)

3rdAnnual Sigma Tau Delta Conference on English Studies, Autonomy, Authority, and Anarchy: “Autonomy, Authority and Anarchy in Poetry and in Life.” with Sonya Pouncy and Kimberly Priest. Central Michigan University (November 8, 2014)

Community Reader, Wellspring Literary Series, Art Reach, [Fleda Brown, Guest Artist] Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. (October 1, 2012)

EDITORIAL

External Reader, Medical Literary Messenger: An Artistic Voice for the Healing Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University (May 2017-)

WORKSHOPS ATTENDED

Lost Lake Writer's Retreat, Springfield Arts. Fall 2019.
° Kelly Fordon

Indiana University Writers Conference: Bloomington, Indiana. July 2019.
° Aimee Nezhukumatathil workshop and Jan-Henry Gray

Iota Short Forms Conference: New Brunswick, Canada. August 2018.
° Beth Ann Fennelly and Sven Birkerts

Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference (attended sessions), Tampa, Florida. March 2018.

Bear River Writer’s Workshop: Walloon Lake, Michigan. (with partial scholarship) June 2016.
° Richard Tillinghast

Writers Conference Workshops: Ann Arbor Book Fair. June 21, 2014.
° Mardi Jo Link: Keynote Speaker; Scott Beal: “Brain Spelunking”; Dorene O’Brien: “Microfiction/Macro Income”; Shira Erlichman: “In the Spirit of the Divine Rascals”

Workshop:“Speak, Muse: A Day With the Sister From Below”: Jung Psychoanalytic Institute, Cleveland, Ohio, May 18, 2013.
° Naomi Lowinsky

ENGLISH DEGREE PROGRAM

MA in English Language and Literature, Creative Writing Emphasis. Central Michigan University Fall 2017.
Teachers: Robert Fanning, Jeffrey Bean, Darrin Doyle, Ronald Primeau