Amy Wright Vollmar

Amy Wright Vollmar (1963-) began writing poetry as a child in Alton, Illinois, while she explored the wooded ravine behind her subdivision. Deeper in southern Illinois, with her father’s family, she learned how to sing Appalachian folk songs and where to find the sweetest hickory nuts. At Monmouth College in Illinois, Amy majored in English, but also wrote a few poems during botany labs. After graduating she lived in Texas, where she worked for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, helping museum visitors touch interesting things: a live opossum or an Apollo astronaut’s glove. With her family, she chose to move to Springfield, Missouri, near the woods of the Ozarks. Hiking, kayaking, and writing followed, along with a job creating curriculum and teaching first graders at Phelps Center for Gifted Education in Springfield. Now retired, Amy volunteers with students, writes, and hopes to show people the beautiful fragility of the wild places she loves through poetry.