Professional Biography

Joanne B. Mulcahy teaches creative nonfiction, ethnographic writing and humanities CORE classes at the NW Writing Institute. Her academic credentials include degrees in Comparative Literature, Folklore and Folklife, and Cultural Anthropology. Mulcahy's writing combines memoir and personal essay with ethnographic exploration. She conducted field research with Native Alutiiq women for over a decade on Kodiak Island, Alaska. After two years with the Smithsonian's Office of Folklife Programs, she moved to Oregon to direct the Oregon Folk Arts Program from 1988-91. She documented cultural traditions, wrote articles and created exhibits to bring vernacular traditions to public attention. Her commitment to collaborative models of writing and public presentation includes local people and communities in the representation of their own cultures. Her book about the life of Mexicana healer and traditional artist, Eva Castellanoz of Nyssa, Oregon is forthcoming.

Mulcahy has taught workshops that combine creative nonfiction and ethnographic writing for the Association of Western States Folklorists, the New York Folklore Society, and the American Folklore Society. For over a decade, she taught courses in anthropology and gender studies in Lewis and Clark’s College of Arts and Sciences. In addition, she has facilitated workshops in numerous other settings, including The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, the Hudson Valley Writer’s Center, Oregon public libraries, The Verbal Arts Centre in Derry, N. Ireland, and Alaska and Oregon Corrections facilities. She is an Associate of the Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking and adjunct faculty for the Ph.D. program of The Union Institute.

Mulcahy’s essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Her awards include fellowships from The Oregon Institute of Literary Arts, the New Letters nonfiction prize, and grants from The British Council, the Alaska Humanities Forum, and the Oregon Council for the Humanities. She has held writing residencies at Caldera, the Espy Foundation, Hedgebrook, the Island Institute, The Mesa Refuge, the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, and UCross.

Publications

Birth and Rebirth on an Alaskan Island: The Life of an Alutiiq Healer. University of Georgia Press, 2001.

Remedios: The Healing Life of Eva Castellanoz. Trinity University Press, forthcoming, 2010.

"Ramona" in IWT Journal: Writing from the Inside Out, Bard College, forthcoming 2008.

"The Weight of Faith: Generative Metaphors in the Stories of Eva Castellanoz," in Living With Stories. Ed. William Schneider. Logan: University of Utah Press, 2008.

"Affectionados" in The Folklore Muse. Ed. Frank de Caro. Logan: University of Utah Press, forthcoming 2008.

"Waitress," Oregon Humanities, Fall 2007

"Know Who Your Are: Regional Identity in the Teachings of Eva Castellanoz," Oregon Historical Quarterly, Fall 2007, Vol. 108, No. 3.

"Weave and Mend" in Women Writing Women: A Frontiers Reader Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2006; originally published in Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies, 2000.

"The Root and the Flower" in the Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 118, No 467, 2005.

"Oregon: A Contrary Unity" in These United States, ed. John Leonard. NY: Nation Books, 2002.

"Dreams of Martyrdom" in Resurrecting Grace:Remembering Catholic Childhoods. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001.

Mulcahy, Joanne. (1997). Mary Peterson: A Life of Healing and Renewal. In Kirk, G. and Okazawa-Rey, M. (Eds.), Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.

"Through Dreams and Shadows" in The Stories That Shape Us: Contemporary Women Write About the West. (eds.) Teresa Jordan and James R. Hepworth. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995.

Academic Credentials

Ph.D. 1988, B.A. 1977 University of Pennsylvania
M.A. 1983 University of Wisconsin, Madison

*photo by Judy Blankenship