Guest Profile

Christine Hemp

Poet & Writer, Coach & Facilitator Christine Hemp has been called
"A Poetry Adventurer." Her creative impulses have informed all aspects of her life work which is eclectic and wide-ranging in scope: From her hands-on writing program Connecting Chord, which united police officers and youth offenders in the highest crime-rate borough of London; to coaching U.S. Navy men and women on how to give authentic presentations. From sending one of her poems into space on a NASA mission monitoring the birth of stars; to her business seminars on dealing with difficult people. Her poems and nonfiction are published widely, and she has aired her commentary on NPR's Morning Edition.


According to Christine, her work is all about connections: Between and among people; in the language we use every day; and in how we perceive the world around us. In order to make these connections, however, first we must hold up a mirror to ourselves. A poet's job, she says, is to help us polish the windows of perception, so we can see that we are not alone. Such knowledge and its application goes beyond the printed page, the laptop screen, beyond the corporate boardroom or a "how-to" manual on living life. True connection is not a method, nor is it a program: It is the state of being awake, authentic and powerful.


Hemp's radio show, The Hempsonian Institute of Higher Yearning, airs weekly Sunday mornings on KPTZ Radio Port Townsend and streams online. Her book, That Fall, was chosen for the 2011 New Women's Voices Series at Finishing Line Press. She also is the recipient of the Harvard University Extension Conway Award, a first prize from the Society for Professional Journalists, and a Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship for Literature.


A recent coaching client said, "Thank you, Christine, for the mirror you provided me in our work together. I feel prepared to take on the world."