Maria Rosales, Secretary
Maria Elizabeth Rosales was born in London. She lived in Europe, North Africa, Canada, and Hawaii before settling in California. A published poet and former dancer, Maria is enthusiastic about the Arts.
Her poems have appeared in Sisyphus, Meridian Magazine, Byline Magazine, Poetry Depth Quarterly, The Contra Costa Times, Nashville Newsletter, Medusa's Kitchen, and The Dirty Napkin, as well as a number of anthologies. She has published two volumes of poetry
Time to Fly with Small Poetry Press in 2001 and Armageddon Bootcamp with Last Laugh Productions in 2021.
In her years in California she hosted the Poetry at Primo’s reading series for many years and performed collaborative dance/poetry work with Moving Arts Dance Company. She was a contributing editor for the online magazine ARTBEAT, published by the Arts & Culture Commission of Contra Costa County. Her prior Board of Directors experience in the Arts includes two years with Moving Arts Dance and eleven years on the board of the Ina Coolbrith Circle, the longest-running California poetry society.
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Maria supported her passion for poetry with a thirty-three-year career in I.T. networking and desktop support. She retired in 2017.
On November 7th of 2018, Maria and her husband Marco Rosales Shaw left their retirement home in Paradise California for a vacation trip to La Misión. They stopped on the way and arrived in La Misión on November 8th , 2018 – the day that the Paradise fire took most of the town, including their home. They have lived in La Misión since.
From 2020-21 Maria hosted the monthly poetry series WORDS FROM THE HEART featuring guest poets from USA and UK via zoom, and currently facilitates a regular writing group at Casa Amarilla.