poet  •  writer  •   teacher

BIOGRAPHY

 

 

Barbara Buckman Strasko is the author of two collections of poetry: Graffiti in Braille (Word Press, 2012) and a chapbook On the Edge of a Delicate Day (Pudding House Press, 2008). She lives along the Conestoga River in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Her poem “Bricks and Mortar” was chosen to be engraved in granite and bronze in Lancaster’s main square. She was appointed the first Poet Laureate of Lancaster County by the Lancaster Literary Guild.

 

Strasko’s poems have appeared in Best New Poets, Rhino, Poet Lore, Brilliant Corners, Ninth Letter and Nimrod. She was a finalist for the 2012 New Letters Poetry Award, has received a Pushcart Prize nomination and is the recipient of a fellowship to the Norman Mailer Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

 

Strasko was the 2009 Teacher of the Year for River of Words, an international environmental youth poetry and art contest. Strasko was a counselor, reading specialist and literacy coach for the School District of Lancaster for many years. She holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and a Masters Degree in Psychology from Millersville University. Strasko currently serves as the Poet in the Schools for Poetry Paths in the city of Lancaster.