Contrary Visions

Kreiter-Kurylo's poems proclaim the beauty and abundance of this world-of memory, history, art and music, of outcasts and exemplars and the fragile, natural economies they inhabit-and as they do so, quietly they celebrate themselves. They are their own best source of wonder.

Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda (formerly Kreiter-Kurylo) is a poet, painter, sculptor and teacher. She holds two masters degrees and a Ph.D. from George Mason University, where she received the first doctorate presented by the school. Her many awards include three Artist-in-Education grants, an Arts-on-the Road grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, a Council for Basic Education fellowship award, a Meritorious Educator Award from the Springfield Rotary Club, the Fairfax County Public Schools' Hodgson Award in English, a National Scholastic Teacher Portfolio Award, a VERA Award for her doctoral dissertation, and an Outstanding Scholarship and Service award from George Mason University. In 1992, she was named a Virginia Cultural Laureate for her contributions to American Literature. Her poems and writings appear widely in such magazines and journals as Hispanic Culture Review, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Mid-American Review, Antioch Review, Passages North, The Journal of Teaching Writing and The Writing Center Journal. She has published three books of poetry, Contrary Visions (under the name, Carolyn Kreiter-Kurylo), Gathering Light, and Death Comes Riding. She has also co-edited a poetry anthology, In a Certain Place. Her paintings have been exhibited throughout Virginia in schools, libraries, nursing and retirements homes, universities, and private art galleries. Reproductions of her paintings and sculpture appear on the covers and pages of her books. Currently, she lives in Burke, Virginia, with her husband, Patricio and their pet, Picatso.