MELISA CAHNMANN-TAYLOR, Meigs Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia, is the co-author of The Creative Ethnographer’s Notebook (2024), the poetry book, Imperfect Tense (2016) and five other books on the arts of language and education: Enlivening Instruction with Drama and Improv (2021), Teachers Act Up: Creating Multicultural Community Through Theatre (2010) & Arts-Based Research in Education, first and second editions (2008; 2018; third edition, In Press). Recipient of six NEA Big Read Grants, a 2023 NEA Distinguished Fellowship, Hambidge Residency Award, and the Beckman award for Professors Who Inspire, she’s served for over ten years as poetry editor and ethnographic poetry judge for Anthropology & Humanism. Awarded a 2013-2014 Fulbright for nine-month study of adult Spanish language acquisition in Oaxaca Mexico, she was appointed in 2020 as Fulbright Scholar Ambassador. Her poems, articles, literary translations, and essays have appeared in the Bitter Southerner, Georgia Review, Lilith, Rattle, American Poetry Review, Poet Lore, Barrow Street, Mom Egg, Plume, Tupelo, Rattle, Hawaii Pacific Review, TESOL Quarterly, Anthropology & Humanism, Educational Researcher, and elsewhere. She and Kuo Zhang are the exclusive translators for the Labour Poet Laureate of China, Nianxi Chen. Website: www.melisacahnmanntaylor.com
Performing Arts
Adult Theatre, Children’s Theatre, Comedy, Improvisation, Performing Arts Education
Literary Arts
Identifying As
