The Embrace: Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo

Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda

POETRY

Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda delightfully weaves together voices in her poems in a way that makes you feel you are eavesdropping on an intriguing, private conversation. And what more interesting couple could she allow us to overhear than artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. A visual artist herself, Kreiter-Foronda possesses a unique capacity to paint with words the colors and forms of Frida’s and Diego’s lives. Her ability to perceive beauty, even in death, turns the drama of Frida’s cremation into an unforgettable reading experience. Poems like “Portrait of Luther Burbank,” and “Calla Lilies” highlight the allure captured from nature in both artists’ paintings and in Carolyn words. ~ Joyce Brinkman, Indiana Poet Laureate Emerita, 2002-2008

Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda served as Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2006-2008. She holds a B.A. from Mary Washington College, now the University of Mary Washington, and a M.Ed., M.A. and a Ph.D. from George Mason University, where she received the institution’s first doctorate. In 2007 both universities gave her the Alumna of the Year Award.

She has published six books of poetry and co-edited two poetry anthologies. Her poems have been nominated for six Pushcart Prizes and appear throughout the United States and abroad in magazines, such as Nimrod, Prairie Schooner, Mid- American Review, Hispanic Culture Review, El Quetzal, Best of Literary Journals, Poet Lore, and An Endless Skyway, an anthology of poems by U.S. State Poets Laureate.