Cecilia Woloch is an American poet, writer, teacher, and performer. She’s published seven collections of poems, a novel, and numerous essays and reviews. Her honors include three fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, CEC/ArtsLink International, the Center for International Theatre Development, and others, as well as a Pushcart Prize. Her writing has been published in translation into French, German, Polish, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Romanes and Spanish. An expanded and updated edition of her second book, Tsigan: The Gypsy Poem, has been the basis for multilingual, multi-media performances in Los Angeles, Paris, Warsaw, Athens and elsewhere. Her latest publication is a poetry chapbook, Labor: The Testimony of Ted Gall, which Joy Priest has called “an important contribution to Appalachian docu-poetics and cross-racial labor solidarity.” She was born in Pennsylvania and raised there and in rural Kentucky and has been fortunate to have traveled the world as a writer and teacher, leading writing workshops and teaching literature in China, Turkey, Mexico, Poland, France, Germany and across the U.S. In 2026, Cecilia will return to Poland as a Fulbright Scholar at Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

The Romani crush this episode is Tony Gatlif.

Cecilia reads poetry from KIN: An Anthology of Poetry, Story and Art by Women from Romani, Traveller and Nomadic Communities. Request from the library or your local bookstores, or buy online or wherever else you get books!

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Romanistan is hosted by Jezmina Von Thiele and Paulina Stevens

Conceived of by Paulina Stevens

Edited by Viktor Pachas

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