Deborah Keenan

Deborah Keenan (1950-) grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota where she has fond memories of her family’s three-acre plot of land. Nine Mile Creek and the protected park land in and around Bloomington features in all her written work. Keenan attended Macalester College and has spent many years dedicated to education, whether that be working with public schools or with older students at the Jewish Community Center. Keenan has also taught as an adjunct at St. John’s University, St. Thomas University, and University of Minnesota. Keenan taught fulltime at Hamline University, where she co-founded the MFA program with Mary Rockcastle. While there, she also co-founded—with 22 other poets—the Laurel Poetry Collective.

Keenan’s commitment to learning, language, and writing has led to several published collections of poetry. Her poetry ranges in topic from love to doubt, memory to family, spiritual to physical. Her poetry has been likened to the surrealism of Marc Chagall’s artwork. Keenan’s books include Good Heart, Kingdoms, and Willow Room, Green Door, which features both new poems and selections from Keenan’s past work. In addition to writing poetry, Keenan also makes collages. Though she retired in 2017, she continues to stay creative, writing new poetry and creating new collages.