vision statement

Organizing inclusive literary events which help bring about greater understanding and equity. 

The Ventura County Poetry Project builds community by fostering appreciation of poetry and other literary forms while promoting and inspiring individual, diverse voices.

Ventura County Poetry Project began informally as a group of writers self-dubbed the ‘Poetry Committee’ with the goal of activating the literary community in Ventura County by recognizing four elder poets as Literary Treasures of Ventura County.  Poets Elnora McNaughton, Doris Vernon, Joyce La Mers and Polly Bee had contributed to our cultural life for decades. In April 2013, we hosted a reception in their honor at the Ventura County Government Center.  

In the following years, we sponsored a whirlwind of initiatives in multiple locales around the county including “An Afternoon of Animal Verse” at the Agricultural Museum in Santa Paula using John Nichols ‘Vernacular Bestiary,’ students at Walnut Canyon Elementary School in Moorpark  wrote ekphrastic poems,  students in Camarillo decorated shop windows with their poems in Old Town during Poetry Month in April, Poets Laureate from six counties converged on Art City in Ventura for  a Laureate Lollapalooza and shared poems and advice on building community. 

We hosted ongoing reading series, poetry contests, outreached elder poets in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo Counties for another installment of Treasures, published a book for Jackson Wheeler, a poetic genius from Oxnard dying young of a brain tumor, held a one-day Literary Festival at Oxnard High School to reach underserved students, and much, much more.  After years of projects, we realized in 2019 that we need to incorporate as a charitable organization and applied for non-profit status. 

Marsha de la O is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Creature from Pitt Poetry Series, 2024.  Her previous book, Every Ravening Thing, also published through the University of Pittsburgh Press, came out in 2019.  Antidote for Night, won the 2015 Isabella Gardner Award and was published by BOA Editions as part of their American Poets Continuum Series.  Her first book, Black Hope, was awarded the New Issues Press Poetry Prize and was published by New Issues Press, Western Michigan University.

She holds an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College.

She's currently a lecturer in the English Department at California State University, Channel Islands where she teaches poetry and creative writing,

Dr. Raquel Baker has a PhD in English Literary Studies from the University of Iowa. I specialize in Postcolonial Studies and 20th- and 21st-century African literatures in English. I received an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College and a BA in Psychology from San Francisco State University. During my graduate study in California, I served as a writing tutor for the Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison. Through that work, I realized how studying creative writing and literature helps make us human – even in inhuman places. 

Dr. Nancy-Jean Pément is from the Outaouais region in Québec. Elle écrit en anglais et en français. Her poems have appeared in ARC Poetry Magazine where her piece, PHL>YOW, was the Editor’s Choice for Poem of the Year, in Morning Glory, the Moorpark Review, Compass, and Askew among others. She has read as part of the Jackson Wheeler Poetry Series, at Poetry by the Sea in Malibu and elsewhere. More recently, her poem (in response to art by Kevin Sloan) Snowperson Wonders at What is Left of the World was exhibited at the California Museum of Art, Thousand Oaks. 

Conrad (Tim) Rummel is a life-time educator who began his teaching career as a high school English teacher in Chicago. Following five years teaching in the Upper Mid-west, he began graduate studies. After graduate school his career turned to school administration as a principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent in school districts in the Minneapolis/St. Paul suburban school districts. Professional development was a major focus of his leadership program. In 2002 he retired from school administration and turned his interest to teaching prospective teachers and administrators at CSU Channel Islands. Building relationships within and between communities is an integral part of his service. Music, visual art, and the literary arts are central to his life.

Dr. Russell Stockard Jr. interests include new media, particularly online marketing and use of new media by diasporic communities of color; critical discourse analysis; sports-related marketing and media; sports communication; media management; cultural studies; environmental communication; tourism; and Caribbean and Latin American studies. His previous professional experience includes satellite communications, telecommunication and cable television. He is active in the Caribbean Studies Association, belongs to the International Communication Association, and the American Association of Geographers.  He formerly served as president of the Southern California Chapter of the National Association of Minorities in Cable. He has done broadcast journalism in Costa Rica and for KCLU-FM, a National Public Radio affiliate, located on the Cal Lutheran campus.

Mary Kay Rummel was Poet Laureate of Ventura County, CA from 2014-2016. Her ninth book of poetry, Nocturnes: Between Flesh and Stone, is being published by Blue Light Press in 2020. The Lifeline Trembles won the Blue Light Award. This Body She’s Entered won the New Rivers Press book award, Love in the End won a book award from Bright Hill Press. She also co-edited Psalms of Cinder & Silt, a community anthology of poems in response to Southern CA fires and mudslides, published by Solo Press. She moved to Ventura when she began teaching at CSU Channel Islands.

Anita McLaughlin is an experienced Art Director on multiple video games targeting children and family. Brand manager of art teams on high-visibility properties for both vertical and licensed titles providing art and design support to product development, product maintenance, and product marketing. Specialties include: concept design ,illustration and UI design for younger and less experienced gamers. works with concept artists, 3D artists, animators, and technical artists to create and implement assets and design

Phil Taggart has four collections of poetry. The last two, Walking the Dog in a Time of Rage and Rick Sings are published by Brandenberg Press, Opium Wars was published by Mille Grazie Press and an art book with artist Ann Harithas, Cowboy Collages.. He has been a poetry editor for over twenty years for Art Life limited edition, and with Marsha de la O, the Askew Poetry Journal and Spillway.

Phil presently hosts a regular poetry reading at the EP Foster Library in Ventura, CA. He teaches Digital Broadcast Media at El Camino High School at Ventura College. Phil grew up in South Whittier.

vcpoetryproject@gmail.com