STACY RUSSO, PhD
CALIFORNIA WRITER, ARTISt, & LOVE ACTIVIST
Living My “Chocolate Before Noon” Life!
recent happenings in my life
I’m teaching English 242: Survey of American Literature, 1865 to Present in Spring 2027 (class runs February - June) at Santa Ana College. This class is online and may be taken from anywhere. Reach out to me with any questions about the class, including how to enroll. I also teach several sections of the in-person English C1000: Academic Reading & Writing every fall and spring.
I’m currently working on two projects: a poetry collection and turning my PhD dissertation into a book. I’m also enrolled in Jennifer Leigh Selig’s fabulous “Writing Down the Soul” on memoir writing through Pacifica Graduate Institute.
My short story “Carol and Joan” will appear in the spring 2027 issue of the Santa Monica Review.
My book BEYOND 70: The Lives of Creative Women won a 2024 Nautilus Silver Medal Book Award in the category of Aging Consciously and was shortlisted for the 2024 Memoir Magazine awards. BEYOND 70 was also the #1 new Amazon release in “Individual Artists Essays” for several weeks. Published by Nauset Press, BEYOND 70 features the inspiring stories of phenomenal women I interviewed between the ages of 70-98.
One Day I Started a New Life, an art book featuring my collage and mixed media work from the past decade, is now available from Litwin Books.
On November 22, 2024, I successfully defended my PhD dissertation Reading Women’s Lives: Autobiographical Writings on the Solo-Home Experience. My PhD is from the Transformative Studies Department at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. After much hard work, a dream came true.
Food Flowers Medicine: And Other Gifts from the Garden, a personal essay collection featuring work by contemporary authors was released June 2025 from my Wild Librarian Press. I co-edited this anthology with the fabulous Julie Artman. Julie and I also co-edited Wild Crone Wisdom: Poetry and Stories, an anthology from Wild Librarian Press that came out in 2024. Julie has been an amazing partner on these two beautiful projects!
Thank you for stopping by today!
Women Gathering to Create Beauty (mixed media with acrylic/paper)
What does it mean to be a love activist?
Discover the Eight Beautiful Elements of Love Activism and practices for a joyful and kind life.
Scene from Poetry Hounds (mixed media with pen/watercolor/magazine paper)