Erica Goss served as Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, California from 2013-2016. Her latest poetry collection, Night Court, won the 2016 Lyrebird Prize from Glass Lyre Press. She is the author of Wild Place (2012, Finishing Line Press) and Vibrant Words: Ideas and Inspirations for Poets (2014, Pushpen Press).
As Poet Laureate for Los Gatos, she organized the first St. Patrick’s Day Poetry Walk, created Poems-in-the-Window (local businesses displayed poems during National Poetry Month), recorded The Poetry Podcast (50-plus recordings of poems in a variety of languages), established the first Los Gatos Poet Laureate Scholarship, and launched The Poetry Kitchen, a poetry reading series at the Los Gatos Library.
Erica’s work is featured in numerous anthologies and journals, including Colorado Review, Georgia Review, North Dakota Review, Oregon Humanities, Pearl, Ekphrasis, Main Street Rag, Café Review, Perigee, Dash Literary Journal, Eclectica, Up the Staircase, Lake Effect, Consequence, Stirrings, Convergence, Passager, Atticus Review, Gravel, Tinderbox Review, Caveat Lector, Rattle, Zoland Poetry, Spillway, San Pedro Rover Review, Comstock Review, Contrary, and Innisfree Poetry Journal. In 2023, she received a “Notable Essay” honor from Best American Essays. She received the Zocalo Poetry Prize in 2019 and the Many Mountains Moving Prize for poetry in 2011. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2010, 2013, 2017, 2020, and 2021, Best of the Net in 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2023, and received the first Edwin Markham Prize for poetry, judged by California Poet Laureate Al Young. Wild Place was also a finalist in the 2010 White Eagle Coffee Store Press Chapbook Contest, and received a special mention from Jacar Press’s 2010 Chapbook Contest.
Erica was the host of Word to Word, a Show About Poetry, on KCAT Cable TV in Los Gatos, and wrote The Third Form, a column about video poetry, for Connotation Press. She is the co-founder of Media Poetry Studio, a poetry-and-film camp for teen girls. In 2018, Erica founded Girls’ Voices Matter, an arts education program for teen girls. Erica lives in Eugene, Oregon, and teaches classes in poetry, memoir and video.
RECENT INTERVIEWS/PRESS
Interview at Eucalyptus Lit, April 1, 2024
Interview with Deborah-Zenha Adams: Three questions and a poem, April 20, 2023
Interview with Brennie Shoup at the Superstition Review blog, December 9, 2022
Interview at the blog of Rachael Carnes, Fall 2020
Feature at Snowflakes in a Blizzard, Spring 2018
Interview at Reading Writings, Summer 2017
Studio Tour at Modern Creative Life, Summer 2017
My Bucket List at Reading Writings, Summer 2017
A Typical Tuesday at Modern Creative Life, Summer 2017
Interview at the Literary Nest, Summer 2017
Interview at KKUP Radio’s Poetry Show, Spring 2017
Interview with Los Gatos Weekly about my time as Poet Laureate, Winter 2015
Interview with Alina Sayre, 2014
Interview at Rowdy Prisoners, 2012
A video by Jake Cushnir about my typical day:
March 1 2018 reading at Lane Community Writers Series, Eugene, Oregon:
Your reading resonated with me–it’s a bit like a snapshot of the sandwich generation experience–you tell it poignantly.
Oh my, Erica!! I loved your about statement. I will have to go back and read the links you provided but your video was amazingly stunning! I really loved it – especially from 3:52 onward was very inspiring to me.
So much so that I had to put you on pause, please forgive me, because you inspired me so much I had to go write something down. Funny thing is what I started out to write didn’t end up being what I put down on paper but turned into it’s own blossom. I’m sure you have experienced that too. I’m hoping to come back to the original topic soon.
I so enjoyed your last poem. It was brilliant! Your recitation was wonderful and I’m wanting to read it (my eyes are now jealous of my ears).
I always appreciate being able to pick up seeds of inspiration from the words and works of others and you have blessed me with that and I’m so thankful for the seeds you left scattered about!
I will send you a copy of what I wrote on via your contact page.
Chuck