Wyatt Townley is Poet Laureate of Kansas Emerita and she’s on a mission. Poetry saved Wyatt’s life, empowering her to recover from childhood trauma, and it continues to sustain her today. Meanwhile, she met a tall poet across a crowded room at a reading in New York, and they married 40 blessed years ago, publishing numerous books along the way. In short, she is immersed personally, professionally, and spiritually in this thing called poetry. It’s why she’s here.

Her mission is to bring people home to poetry, and poetry home to people. Wyatt has published seven books, five of poetry: Making the Turn (forthcoming 2026), Rewriting the Body, The Breathing Field, Perfectly Normal, and The Afterlives of Trees. Her work has been read on NPR, featured in American Life in Poetry, and appeared in journals ranging from New Letters to Newsweek, North American Review to Paris Review, Yoga Journal to Scientific American. Commissioned poems hang in the Johnson County Library and the Space Telescope Science Institute Library, home of the Hubble.

Appearing both nationally and regionally, Wyatt has toured all parts of Kansas since moving back here from New York. During her term as state poet laureate, she travelled 10,000 miles through Kansas’s far-flung beauty and kind people, through 80mph winds in Greensburg and blizzards in Liberal. She read to a dog and slept in a silo. It was all poetry, all the way down. She has given hundreds of readings and workshops at libraries, universities, conferences, retirement centers, and schools as poet, nonfiction writer, and former teaching artist with Young Audiences. She has enjoyed publishing with little presses and big, nationally and internationally. Formerly a dancer, Wyatt earned her BFA in Dance from the State University of New York (Purchase) and the Presidential Award, created in her honor, for a Senior Thesis in poetry. For years, she directed her own dance company in New York.

To recover from a serious dance injury—a broken neck—Wyatt developed and still teaches her own yoga system, Yoganetics, now practiced on six continents. Wyatt’s kinetic practice of poetry and her poetic practice of yoga have fused into a single impulse—poetry in motion. We move, and we are moved. She often joins forces with artists, composers, and choreographers. An opera, “Snow Angel,” based on her book Rewriting the Body, premiered at the Lied Center (University of Kansas) with singers and chamber orchestra. A dance based on Wyatt’s poem, “Striptease,” funded by a McKnight Artist Grant, debuted in Minneapolis’s Northrup Auditorium. “What Keeps Us Still” premiered in Seattle’s Symphony Hall with soprano, pianist, string quartet, and dancer from the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Wyatt recently collaborated with a Dutch composer on a multimedia theatre-piece for big band, to tour Europe. Next up is a poetry/art installation with Chinese artist Hong Chun Zhang, whose work hangs in museums and collections worldwide and infuses Wyatt’s next book, Making the Turn.

• Generally, Wyatt offers one, two, or as many as three events in one day—a reading, a class, a workshop, or whatever combination best suits your needs.

• Fees are flexible, depending on your needs and your organization. Generally, $500-$1000 for one event; then the price divides in half: $250-$500 for second event; then half again: $125-$250 for the third.

• Gas, per diem, and lodging for bookings 85+ miles from Shawnee Mission.

Poetry is contagious! In my travels around Kansas, I find that people are thirsty to talk about important things. Readings, programs, and keynote addresses are offered singly or with other services. Here are three:

• [NEW] Making the Turn Life has many turning points, through love and illness, trauma and ecstasy. The terrain can be tricky. Wyatt explores life’s sometimes sharp and hairpin curves in her own and others’ poems. Trained by the curve, leaving becomes returning, turning away becomes turning around, and revolution becomes revelation.

• Body as Poem Whitman said, “Your very flesh shall be a great poem…in every motion and joint.” We rewrite that poem with each breath. Formerly a dancer and a teacher of yoga for decades, Wyatt explores poetry and the body as “place”—as our mobile home—room by room, from trauma to revelation. She will read from her work and others on the theme.

• Coming Home to Poetry Home—what is it, where is it, and how does it intersect with poetry? “Poetry is a place,” Wyatt affirms, “a place we can return to in all kinds of weather. Its porchlight is always on.” She explores “home” through her own and others’ poems.

Artist Exhibitions: Exhibiting my own work, curating exhibitions, juroring exhibitions, etc. Printmaking Workshop: This workshop introduces participants to accessible, non-toxic printmaking methods including monotype, relief, intaglio, and screenprinting. Participants gain an understanding of the printing process from start to finish and create their own prints using portable materials. Participants will leave with a series of original prints and an understanding of the printmaking process.

Papermaking Workshop: In this eco-focused, DIY-driven workshop, participants learn how to transform recycled materials into new sheets of handmade paper. They explore the papermaking process from pulp preparation to pulling sheets, and experiment with embellishments, natural inclusions, or pulp painting. The session highlights sustainability, material exploration, and personal expression. Each participant leaves with a collection of handmade papers ready for use in books, prints, or mixed-media work.

Book Arts Workshop: Participants are introduced to a range of book arts techniques and learn to create handmade book structures using their own prints or handmade papers. Everyone leaves with at least one completed artist book and the foundational skills to continue exploring bookmaking independently. Artist Talk: A presentation of my artistic practice and creative process.