Liza Wolff-Francis, MFA, MSW, LCSW
Liza Wolff-Francis is the 8th Poet Laureate of Carrboro, North Carolina. She has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She wrote the play “Border Rising” that was performed in three cities. She has taught writing workshops for over a decade and has an ekphrastic poem published in Austin’s Blanton Art Museum. She was co-director for the 2014 Austin International Poetry Festival and now works organizing the West End Poetry Festival with the Town of Carrboro and the Carrboro Poets Council. Her poetry addresses a wide range of topics and she considers herself an ecopoet, most recently writing poetry that addresses the climate crisis and human response to it. Her essay “Exploring Ecopoetry: Changing Definitions” was published by Valparaiso University. Her writing has been widely anthologized and her poetry has most recently appeared in The Phare, Silver Birch Press, Wild Roof Journal, SLAB, and Kakalak. She has also written poetry book reviews that have been published on Adroit, Compulsive Reader, and LitPub.
She also works as a clinical social worker and got her MSW at Smith College School for Social Work where she was trained in Psychodynamic theory. She has studied Eco-therapy, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Play Therapy, Sand Tray Therapy, Couples Therapy, Feminist theory, and Mindfulness. She is trauma informed and has worked with survivors of sexual violence, intimate partner violence and domestic violence. She is fluent in both Spanish and English and she started the non-profit, Casa Fortaleza in Albuquerque, New Mexico which works with survivors of sexual violence, focusing on Spanish speaking survivors. She has also led writing groups in both English and Spanish for trauma survivors to facilitate and encourage creative expression and healing through writing.