Biography

Joy Roulier Sawyer lives near downtown Denver, where she teaches in the Masters of Liberal Studies (MLS) program at University College, University of Denver. A native of Colby, Kansas, she is the former poetry editor for Mars Hill Review and a former contributing editor and columnist for Inklings: Threads of Truth in Art & Story.

Joy received her MA from New York University’s Gallatin Division, where she was awarded the Herbert Rubin Award for Outstanding Creative Writing. At NYU, she studied under literary critic Denis Donoghue, poet Galway Kinnell, and NYQ editor William Packard. Her poetry appears in such publications as BOLE, Books & Culture, Christianity & Literature, Lilliput Review, LIGHT, New York Quarterly, Ruminate, and Theology Today.

Joy is a 2007-08 Rocky Mountain Women’s Institute fellowship recipient for her performance poetry, a theatrical adaptation of her eight-sonnet crown, Following the Piper. Along with her husband, Scott, also an author, she has performed her one-act poetry play, The Gospel According to Poetry, in a wide variety of artistic venues across the country.

Joy believes in the power of poetry as a healing agent. She is a registered poetry therapist (PTR) and approved mentor-supervisor (M/S) for poetry therapists through the National Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapists (NFB/PT), and a long-standing member of the National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT).