If you’ve ever wondered if your story is worth telling, you should ask Ronda Miller. Empowering people to write their personal stories is kinda her thing. While this is Ronda’s first time teaching at Johnson County Library’s Writers Conference, our staff have had the pleasure of working with her in our partnership with the Johnson County Department of Corrections at their Therapeutic Center. Our incarcerated services outreach committee asked Ronda to facilitate a creative writing course in Spring 2022. It was a huge success, and she now teaches three semesters a year at the Therapeutic Center. We are thrilled to have her on faculty this year at the 2023 Writers Conference!
Ronda Miller is a Certified Life Coach with IPEC (Institute of Empowerment Coaching) who works with clients who have experienced trauma. She is a graduate of the University of Kansas and a Fellow of The Citizen Journalism Academy, World Company. Miller created poetic forms loku and ukol. She was the co-chair, along with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, for the Transformative Language Arts Conference at Unity Village September, 2015. Miller was the poetry contest manager for Kansas Authors Club (2011-2014), District 2 President of the club (2015 – 2017), state Vice President (2016 – 2017), and state President (2018 - 2019). Her five books of poetry include Going Home: Poems from My Life, MoonStain, WaterSigns, Winds of Time, and I Love the Child (winner of The Children’s Books Award at The Kansas Author’s Club State Convention, October of 2020. Miller sits on the Board of The Writers Place where she is committee chair for the In Our Own Words anthology project for at risk Kansas City, Missouri, high school students. Miller currently teaches The Importance of Voice for Trauma Transformation in concert with Johnson County Library, School of Trades, and Department of Corrections. Miller is the poetry editor for The Write Bridge magazine.
We can’t wait to attend Ronda’s sessions this year, and we know you won’t want to miss them either! Ronda will present three presentations at this year’s conference: “Writing Your Award-Winning Childrens Book;” a session on writing with an end stage illness; and a workshop called “How To Rewrite Your Trauma Without Too Much Drama.”
You can register for the 2023 Writers Conference here. Registration isn’t required but is appreciated, and your RSVP includes both days of the conference, Nov. 3 and 4. Sessions are available on a first-come first-serve basis. We will also be hosting a Writers Conference Kickoff on Thursday, Nov. 2.
Inspired by this year’s conference book, By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review, we asked Ronda a few questions to get to know her better:
1. What's in your TBR pile?
My to read list is almost at a tie with my to write list! Books that I am excited to read are: Spilled Milk by K.L. Randis
Dancing on Broken Glass by Ka Hancock
The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
2. What are you reading right now?
Blood: A Novel by Patricia Traxler
The Secret Life of Sunflowers by Marta Molnar
3. Do you have a favorite book you love to recommend?
I always recommend anything by William Stafford. I look forward to Denise Low’s upcoming book Jigsaw Puzzling, and anything by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg. (read local authors!)
4. Do you have a favorite bookstore?
I live in Lawrence, so my favorite bookstore is The Raven Bookstore. I love visiting bookstores wherever I go.
5. Answer the question you wish we had asked.
Which authors influenced my writing style? I read every book by Edgar Allen Poe and Walt Whitman while growing up, then fell in love with D. H. Lawrence, Ernest Hemingway, and Truman Capote. It is interesting that I went from a ‘purple prose’ preference to a more succinct journalistic style preference. It is exciting to utilize several writing styles within both poetry and prose.