Biography

A poet and spiritual practice facilitator whose work explores the intersection of creativity and mindfulness.

Kate Marshall Flaherty lives in Toronto with her husband and three children. She leads poetry sweatshops and writing-as-a-spiritual-practice workshops, leads meditation and mindfulness retreats, teaches yoga and is a founding member of the Children's Peace Theatre Toronto.

She celebrated the launch of her first book, entitled "Tilted Equilibrium", May 2006, and launched her first CD, "Deepening Stillness", in June 2006. She has read at Toronto's Art Bar, Toronto WordStage, Hot Sauced Words and The Renaissance Conspiracy reading series and TOPS events.

Kate has won several awards for her poetry, is published in a number of magazines and anthologies, and made the shortlist for both the Descant Winston Collins Best Canadian Poem 2006, and the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry 2006.

She has been filmed and interviewed for Bravo's Heart of the Poet series twice in 2005 and 2006, and was interviewed by CBC's Rosie Fernandez for "Words at large" as a new Random Acts of Poetry Poet. She has participated in The Banff Centre's Writing With Style Program twice, and leads a Poetry Writing Workshop at University of Toronto's Continuing Ed. SMC Campus. Poetry is her first love, and continues to be her life-line.

Awards & Recognition

• Hon. Mention in the William Henry Drummond Poetry Contest, 2008
• First place for the Shaunt Basmajian Award 2006
• First place in the Canadian Church Award for Poetry 2006
• First place in Canadian Poetry Association's Poetry Contest 2006
• First place in Word Magazine's Literary Contests 2003
• Third Place in Word Magazine's Literary contest 2004
• First place in Cranberry Tree Press Poetry Contest 2002
• Honourable Mention THIS Magazine Great Canadian Poetry Contest 2005
• Second Place for the 2007 Silver Hammer Award for Poetry

Selected Anthologies

• Oval Victory, Hidden Brook Press, 2002
  ISBN 1-894553-35-7
• Rocks and Rhythm, Beret Days Books, 2003
  ISBN 0-9687157-3-7
• Rise Up Singing: An Anthology of Women's Poetry & Prose
• Other Voices, Emergence by Design, 2002
  ISBN 0838-4789
• Ascent Aspirations, Windfire, 2006
  ISBN 1715-0841
• Outward Bound: An Anthology of Canadian Verse , HMS Press, 2005
  ISBN 1-55253-055-8
• Handprints on the Future, Hidden Brook Press, 2003
  ISBN 01-894553-48-9
• Poet to Poet, Guernica Editions, 2012 Edited by Elana Wolff and Julie Roorda

Books in Print

• Salt, Micro Prose, 2005
  ISBN 0-9734609-3-8
• Tilted Equilibrium, Hidden Brook Press, 2006
  ISBN 1-894553-70-5

CDs

• Deepening Stillness (Big Window Music 2006)