Deidra's
poetry has appeared in American
Poetry Review, Poetry Miscellany,
Puerto del Sol, West
Branch, and Wind Magazine,
among other printed and online
journals.
In
1997 Deidra returned to writing
poetry after more than 20 years
of focusing on her professional
career in communications. In 2000,
she took a hiatus from work to
attend the MFA program at Vermont
College where she studied under
Richard Jackson, Betsy Sholl,
Bill Olsen, and Roger Weingarten.
In
2001 she was selected as Montgomery
County Poet Laureate in a competition
judged by Robert Hass. Also that
year, she received a Leeway Emerging
Artist Award and was nominated
by Vermont College for the Modern
Poetry Association's Ruth Lily
Fellowship. In 2002, she was a
finalist for a Pew Fellowship
in poetry.
Today,
Deidra tries to balance her creative
writing life with the demands
of her professional career—a challenge
in which she is not always successful,
though ever hopeful. She credits
the support of her weekly poetry
group, 34th Street Poets, with
helping her to keep focused and
motivated.