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Myra Kalaw

Chicago based poet Myra Kalaw, who was an artist-in-residence at the Coleman Center in 2003, was born and raised in the Philippines. She started writing at 11, after reading a collection of poetry by José Garcia Villa. At 16, she moved with her family to Chicago and started taking poetry lessons at a local community college, where she was a Harold Washington Scholar. At 19, she began to perform poetry for benefits and open-mikes. She joined the Asian American Artists' Collective and co-founded MONSOON, a student-run literary/arts journal which is now in its ninth year of publication. At 20, she accepted the position of Associate Editor to RIKSHA, a Chicago-based Asian American Magazine. At 22, she entered Columbia College-Chicago and took poetry as well as papermaking, letterpress printing and bookmaking. At 24, after spending summers at the Bread and Puppert Farm in Glover, Vermont, she started writing short plays and performing (or not performing) them. At 27, she entered the Columbia College Graduate School as a Follett Fellow in the Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts Program. She will resume her studies in the Fall of 2003 with an Illinois Consortium for Educational Opportunity Award. She has worked as a poet, editor, house painter, floral assistant, publisher, woodshop apprentice, tutor, grantswriter, playwright, barista and cleaning lady.