Maurynne Maxwell (Miss M)

My workshops present exercises for nurturing the creative spirit and tools to jumpstart joyful living. 

In addition to being a freelance writer and a Certified Laughter Yoga (Hasiya Yoga)Leader,  I am a non-demoninational minister and a ceremony consultant, which means I can perform ceremonies and/or help you design your own rituals and celebrations for all of life's seasons--birth, death, and in-between.

I was a  Pima Community College instructor for creative writing classes in Continuing Education, teaching poetry and my seminar Writing The Sacred (TM). 

I have a video on YouTube called Nuclear Rap Blues.

I believe

that imagination is more important than knowledge

that myth is more potent than history

that dreams are more powerful than facts

that hope triumphs over experience

that laughter is the only cure for pain

that love is stronger than death

I've been on the Arizona Artist's Roster, done residencies in elementary, kindergarten, & Pre-school classrooms, and I helped edit the University of Arizona Poetry Center's poetry curriculum for young children, Verse!. I was also the Education Coordinator for the Poetry Center. I also worked in bookstores for many years.

I write poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. In 1995 I won a Tucson/Pima Arts Council grant for Creative Nonfiction, for portions of my manuscript, Drinking Holy Water. 

In 2000, my chapbook, Blessings, was published. In 2006, New Verse News published my poem(s) Democracy. The aforementioned Verse! published The Grumpy Stomp. In 2008, both The Atomic Cocktail Party & Trivia Book and The Titan Missile Museum Coloring Book were published.

 As a certified Laughter Yoga Leader--what else could someone who made the Grumpy Stomp do next? I will be starting a Laughter Club and adding these wonderfully freeing exercises to my workshop repertoire. And I'll be designing a new T-shirt, I imagine!