Maya Khosla

Alum 1999

Maya Khosla is the Poet Laureate of Sonoma County (2018-2020). Her first book of poetry, Keel Bone, won the Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize and was published by Bear Star Press. Her chapbook, Heart of the Tearing, was published by Red Dust Press.

A field-based biologist and a writer, Maya’s concerns for the natural world have led her through the wild, to the page, and to the screen. Her acclaimed first film Searching for the Gold Spot is about the wilds of the American West after wildfire.

She is currently working to assess the forests and rivers of California. Her new collection of poems, All the Fires of Wind and Light, is forthcoming from Sixteen Rivers Press in 2019.

A wildlife biologist and writer, her work takes her to wilderness areas, to the page and to the screen. She has documented forests, fire scientists and firefighters talking about ways to be wise about wildfire. Maya’s work has taken her across coastal India, Kenya, and the United States.