Copy of Featured Author Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg + Open Mic with 15 writers

The Journal of Expressive Writing is more than a publication. We aim to be an engaged and supportive community of writers and listeners. Giving our focused attention to each other’s voices, stories and writing is a generous, necessary act of humanity, repair and celebration.

On Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025 at 7:00pm EST, our monthly OPEN MIC series will feature Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D.—the 2009-2013 Kansas Poet Laureate and author of over two dozen books, both fiction and poetry. Her HOT OFF THE PRESS latest book is The Magic Eye: A Story of Saving a Life and a Place in the Age of Anxiety, published in 2025 by Mammoth Publications​.

About Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D., the 2009 –2013 Kansas Poet Laureate is the author of over two dozen books, including How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems; Miriam’s Well, a novel; The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and Coming Home to the Body. Her poetry and prose have been widely published in hundreds of literary magazines and anthologies over the years.

Founder of Transformative Language Arts (writing, music, storytelling, and other word arts for social and personal transformation), Caryn is a beloved writing workshop facilitator and writing coach with over thirty years of experience. She regularly teaches for Lighthouse Writers, Writers.com, the Transformative Language Arts Network as well as offering private classes, all focused on how writing can bring us greater meaning, vitality, connection, and joy. She loves life-giving collaborations: she offers Your Right Livelihood with Kathryn Lorenzen, Brave Voice with Kelley Hunt, and The Art of Facilitation with Joy Roulier Sawyer.

Caryn offers weekly “Write Where You Are: A Writer’s Companion” through her Patreon and her long-running blog, “Everyday Magic.” As elaborated upon in this memoir, she makes her home with eco- logical writer Ken Lassman south of Lawrence, Kansas where the deer and the wild turkeys roam, a dog and cat keep house, and their adult children frequently visit.

More at: www.carynmirriamgoldberg.com

About The Magic Eye: A Story of Saving a Life and a Place in the Age of Anxiety

Nothing could have prepared me for being diagnosed with a rare and deadly eye cancer in the middle of trying to save the Kansas land where my husband and I live. From the 2019 diagnosis through the pandemic, I entered into both a risky plan to buy our fifth-generation farm and daunting treatment to survive the large tumor in my right eye. The Magic Eye tells the story of saving a life (my own) and a place, a 130-acre farm we had been actively turning into a wildlife refuge for three decades.

LINK for more about the book: https://www.carynmirriamgoldberg.com/magic-eye

Link for book purchase HERE

Praise for the Book

“No endorsement can do justice to this vivid, lyric, wise, wry, compassionate, profoundly spiritual memoir of passage through some severe life trials. The Magic Eye is a microcosmic epic of unvaunting human triumph. Bursting with life in its myriad forms, this is a book to love and to share.”

~ Stephanie Mills, author of In Service of the Wild and Epicurean Simplicity

About the Open Mic Portion:
In addition to our featured writers, 15 other pre-registered writers will read their work. Each of our contributing authors will have 3 minutes to read their best expressive writing, poetry, stories, free writing, non-fiction, personal essay, memoir, reflective essay, prose, contemplative discourse, and creative non-fiction.

The Journal's OPEN MIC series is FREE to attend and OPEN TO ALL, but you do need to Pre-Register through eventbrite to get the live Zoom link.

The Journal's OPEN MIC series is produced and hosted by Kelly DuMar.

If you would like to read your writing for 3 minutes in the Open Mic portion of this event, you must sign up separately for that here. This Eventbrite registration is to attend the event.