Bio for Anne McCrady
Anne McCrady is a poet, presenter and peace advocate who believes Every Moment is Poetic; Every Life is an InSpirational Story.
In 2003, Anne founded her company, InSpiritry, to umbrella her many activities addressing peace, social justice, education, spirituality and progressive issues, with the mission of Putting Words to Work for a Better World.
As a peacemaker, Anne is cofounder/co-director of Art of Peace – Tyler, an annual week-long, arts-based celebration of the United Nations International Day of Peace, the cofounder of the Texas Peace Summit and offers OpenWords programs for marginalized audiences. For thirty years, she has been a sponsor of the Yates Park Help the Youth Project school supply drive in Henderson, Texas. In response to Anne’s community efforts, she has been honored as a Rusk County Outstanding Young Woman of the Year and a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow.
A prolific writer, Anne has written three published collections of her poetry: Along Greathouse Road, Under a Blameless Moon and Letting Myself In, as well as essays, blogposts, speeches, worship readings, personal stories, devotionals, songs and children’s stories. She is currently working on a libretto and several manuscripts. As part of Art of Peace - Tyler, Anne has edited and published three international peace poetry anthologies, and her own poems are included in several dozens of anthologies, several focused on poverty and social justice. She is Creative Director for the Northeast Texas Poetry in Schools Awards and was cofounder/producer of the Texas Poets Podcast, a monthly podcast series of conversations with notable Texas poets.
For twenty years, Anne’s poems have found wide audiences. Her work have won numerous regional and national contest awards and literary honors. The list of her publication credits includes dozens of literary journals and arts magazines, as well as international anthologies. A judge, editor, critic and workshop presenter, Anne presents her own work and leads workshops at writing conferences and literary meetings around the state of Texas, including those sponsored by several universities. One of her instructional essays is included in Wingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry.
Anne’s performance storytelling, which often features original narratives and songs, has delighted adult and student audiences across Texas, and for several years Anne was included on the Texas Commission of the Arts Touring Artist Roster. Of late, while continuing to share stories with children, Anne more often uses her stories and poems in motivational presentations. She speaks regularly at worship services for area Unitarian Universalist fellowships and offers keynotes for community groups.
As evidenced in her published work and her speaking appearances, while Anne’s heart is a global citizen, the context of many of her most popular works is the natural setting of the Pineywoods of East Texas, where she has lived since moving to Texas from Alabama as a small child. Notably, her stories and poems often feature everyday human experiences, which Anne says, “when seen as sacred, become poignant examples of what it means to live a meaningful life.”
Anne holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry with a minor in Biology from Stephen F. Austin State University and says her passions—science, politics, poetry, narrative and peace— are all arts of discovery. Anne’s interests include Nature, gardening, hiking, live music and family. She lives and writes under a canopy of the pines and oaks with the distraction of a lovely pond visited by hawks, herons and owls in Tyler, Texas, where she lives with her husband Dr. Mike McCrady, a family physician and hospitalist. She says she draws inspiration from wise women everywhere, especially her mother who for 86 years has been in mission to children. She also counts among her heroes all those who work for peace and social justice around the world, her many open-hearted friends and family members, and her three adult children -- a pediatrician, a forest wildlife biologist and a mining engineer -- and their spouses. In addition to her professional life, Anne is Annie to her three young granddaughters: Heidi, Effie, Holly and Alidia.
More about Anne McCrady’s poetry and other endeavors is available at her website, InSpiritry.com. Her blog posts, podcasts and stories can be found at www.InSpiritry.com/wordpress, www.PoetwithaPressPass.com and www.SoundCloud.com, as well as on FaceBook and Twitter, where Anne posts a daily InSpiritry Question for the Day.
Anne McCrady
8936 Cherokee Trail
Tyler, TX 75703
903-658-5645
