Lisa Zaran

Lisa Zaran (born September 26,1969) is an American poet, essayist, author and artist. Best known for her poetry collection, the sometimes girl The vignette style poetry has been studied and translated at Haupt- und Realschule Grossheide which is located in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) in North-Western Germany. The course was taught by Frau Erdbrügger.

Life
Zaran was born Lisa Marie Hoie, in Inglewood, Los Angeles, California to a Norwegian father, Leonhard Hoie, and an American-Norwegian mother, Joan (Ablett), Lisa was a middle child with two older siblings and one younger.

Zaran moved over 40 times before the age of 16 across the western United States and Alaska, living in such varied places as New Mexico, Alaska, Oregon, Arizona and California. She attended both public and private schools as well as several Lutheran and Christian academies.

Zaran spent much of her youth reading poetry and listening to music through her older brothers closed bedroom door. The major poetic influence in her young life was James Whitcomb Riley, Thoreau, Walt Whitman and the Bible. Musical influences included The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Mozart and Luciano Pavaratti. She penned her first poem entitled Hallway at the age of six.

Throughout high school Zaran contributed pieces to her local high school paper with the author listed as anonymous.

In 1990 she married and within two years had two children. In the early years of her marriage Zaran began to write the sometimes girl, which was published in 2004 by Inner Circle Publishing. Zaran went on to publish You Have A Lovely Heart (Little Poem Press,2004), a chapbook which explores the beautiful and richly detailed Southwestern landscape of Arizona.

In 2005 she released a 22-poem collection online at Argonauts' Boat, almost as a prelude into her next full collection entitled The Blondes Lay Content (2006, Lulu Press, 2006). Another chapbook was published as well in 2006, Subtraction Flower, which she dedicated to her mother.

Zaran continues to write as well as speak at poetry festivals. In January 2007 she founded a poetry journal, Contemporary American Voices, whose goal is to encourage and carry out through publishing the art of poetry.

Writing
With the publication of her collection the sometimes girl, Zaran emerged as a poet who allowed an infinite access to the core of her existence with such noteworthy works as 'Talking To My Father Whose Ashes Sit In A Closet And Listen', 'Girl', 'Leaves', and 'Tenderness'. The collection is most noted for its ability to say the right thing for all times. The work is also considered 'unpretentious, intensely personal and honest'.

Her poetry appeals to young and old alike but it is through the young that she has won her largest fan base. Over twenty schools, K-12 and college level students, have studied her work and prepared essays, academic papers, debates and contests.