Author Cynthia Wooley lived in California, Mexico and Spain before settling in New Mexico. She attended the graduate program in Creative Writing at the University of New Mexico, where writer Rudolfo Anaya chaired her thesis committee. For over forty years, Wooley has taught English, Writing, Art and Dance to many, including immigrants and inmates. She received the “Albuquerque Lovelace Spirit of Women Community Award” in 2003 for her work teaching writing to female inmates and showcasing their essays in books. Wooley has published articles, essays, poetry and short stories in The Santa Fe New Mexican, New Mexico Magazine, Blue Mesa Review, and The Museum of New Mexico Press, among other publications. Her book of poetry and photography, This Fleeting World was published in 2020, and her poetry featured in the New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023, and Chamisa, A Journal of Literary, Performance and Visual Arts of the Greater Southwest. In 2026 she published Grandes Amores, (lulu.com), a book of interviews with vibrant elders from New Mexico. She is currently at work on a memoir. Wooley’s photography has premiered in one-woman and group photo shows in Chiapas, Mexico, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Princeton University, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is in the band “Música del Aire” and lives in New Mexico near the Rio Grande with her pups.
Education:
1990: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
Master’s Degree in English, emphasis in creative writing.
1987-88: Antioch University, Los Angeles, CA.
Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies.
1982-83: Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design.
Los Angeles, CA, photography program.
1978-79: San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA.
photography program.
Summer 1977: Apprenticeship to photographer Norman Seeff
1974-76: Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles, CA.
writing and photography program.