Cecilia Woloch,
Poet, Writer, Teacher, and Performer
Poetry | Translation | Building Communities | Geopolitics
Cecilia Woloch is a U.S.-born poet, writer, teacher, and performer, based in Los Angeles. Her
honors include fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts,
CEC/ArtsLink International and the Center for International Theatre Development; her work has
also received a Pushcart Prize and been included in the Best American Poetry Series and in
numerous anthologies, including Die Morgendämmerung der Worte: Moderner Poesie-Atlas der
Roma und Sinti (The Dawn of the Words: Modern Poetry Atlas of the Roma and Sinti.) She has
published six collections of poems and a novel, as well as essays and reviews. Tsigan: The
Gypsy Poem, her second collection, originally appeared in 2002 from Cahuenga Press, was
published in French translation as Tzigane, le poème, Gitan, by Scribe-l'Harmattan in 2014, and
was issued in an expanded and updated English edition by Two Sylvias Press in 2018. The final
poem in the new edition is featured in a commemorative exhibit by Daniel Libeskind at
Auschwitz-Birkenau. The text of Tsigan: The Gypsy Poem has also been the basis for multi-
lingual, multi-media performances across the U.S. and Europe. In addition to German and
French, her work has been published in translation in Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian
and Romanes. Born in Pennsylvania and raised in rural Kentucky, Cecilia has traveled the world
as a teacher and writer. She has conducted poetry workshops for thousands of children and
young people throughout the United States, as well as workshops for professional writers,
educators, participants in Elderhostel programs for senior citizens, inmates at a prison for the
criminally insane, and residents at a shelter for homeless women and their children. She is the
founding director of Summer Poetry in Idyllwild, The Istanbul Poetry Workshop and The Paris
Poetry Workshop. She has also served on the creative writing faculties of The University of
Southern California, Georgia College & State University, Western Connecticut State University
MFA Program in Writing and The New England College MFA Program in Poetry. Most
recently, she taught in the summer program at Sichuan University in China in 2019 and will
teach on a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Rzeszów in Poland in 2020.
 As a Citizen TALES member, Cecilia vigorously contributes to building a community of poets
and translators with an emphasis on women’s empowerment and through her “flying university.â€
Poet, Writer, Teacher, and Performer
Poetry | Translation | Building Communities | Geopolitics
Cecilia Woloch is a U.S.-born poet, writer, teacher, and performer, based in Los Angeles. Her
honors include fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts,
CEC/ArtsLink International and the Center for International Theatre Development; her work has
also received a Pushcart Prize and been included in the Best American Poetry Series and in
numerous anthologies, including Die Morgendämmerung der Worte: Moderner Poesie-Atlas der
Roma und Sinti (The Dawn of the Words: Modern Poetry Atlas of the Roma and Sinti.) She has
published six collections of poems and a novel, as well as essays and reviews. Tsigan: The
Gypsy Poem, her second collection, originally appeared in 2002 from Cahuenga Press, was
published in French translation as Tzigane, le poème, Gitan, by Scribe-l'Harmattan in 2014, and
was issued in an expanded and updated English edition by Two Sylvias Press in 2018. The final
poem in the new edition is featured in a commemorative exhibit by Daniel Libeskind at
Auschwitz-Birkenau. The text of Tsigan: The Gypsy Poem has also been the basis for multi-
lingual, multi-media performances across the U.S. and Europe. In addition to German and
French, her work has been published in translation in Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian
and Romanes. Born in Pennsylvania and raised in rural Kentucky, Cecilia has traveled the world
as a teacher and writer. She has conducted poetry workshops for thousands of children and
young people throughout the United States, as well as workshops for professional writers,
educators, participants in Elderhostel programs for senior citizens, inmates at a prison for the
criminally insane, and residents at a shelter for homeless women and their children. She is the
founding director of Summer Poetry in Idyllwild, The Istanbul Poetry Workshop and The Paris
Poetry Workshop. She has also served on the creative writing faculties of The University of
Southern California, Georgia College & State University, Western Connecticut State University
MFA Program in Writing and The New England College MFA Program in Poetry. Most
recently, she taught in the summer program at Sichuan University in China in 2019 and will
teach on a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Rzeszów in Poland in 2020.
 As a Citizen TALES member, Cecilia vigorously contributes to building a community of poets
and translators with an emphasis on women’s empowerment and through her “flying university.â€