Meg Hamill is a California poet, educator, and arts administrator whose work joins literary practice with public arts education. She is the author of two poetry collections, including My Roots, My People, and has edited numerous youth poetry anthologies.
Hamill belongs among contemporary poets whose literary careers extend into teaching, community work, and cultural leadership. Her writing has been described in relation to political and environmental concerns, while her professional life has focused on bringing poetry into classrooms and public programs.
Poetry and books
Hamill has published two collections of poetry, including My Roots, My People. Her work draws on social observation, place, environmental awareness, public life, and the relationship between individual experience and larger political realities.
Her poetry reflects a commitment to direct communication without abandoning complexity. Community, ecological attention, violence, identity, and belonging enter a body of work shaped by both literary craft and civic engagement.
California Poets in the Schools
Hamill has served as Executive Director of California Poets in the Schools, a statewide nonprofit devoted to literary arts education. The organization brings poet-teachers into schools and community settings, helping young people write, read, and perform poetry.
Her leadership there places poetry inside a living educational practice. The work involves training poet-teachers, supporting youth writing, editing student anthologies, developing public programs, and advocating for the place of poetry in education.
Teaching and literary education
Hamill is also a teacher of poetry. Her educational work emphasizes writing as a way to develop attention, empathy, voice, and connection. She has created poetry lessons for young writers and has participated in readings and literary events throughout Northern California.
This combination of writing and teaching places her within a long American tradition in which poets build audiences through workshops, schools, community organizations, and public readings as well as through books.
Education
Hamill earned a BA from Bard College and an MFA in poetry from Mills College. Her literary education became the foundation for a career spanning poetry, arts administration, environmental and community work, and classroom teaching.
California poetry community
Hamill has been active in Northern California literary life as a writer, organizer, and educator. Her work connects the individual practice of writing poems with the wider institutions that allow poetry to circulate among readers, students, teachers, and communities.
For a broader view of poets working in the United States today, explore American poetry.
Further reading
Browse the poets directory for additional writers and literary traditions.