ello, my name is Stazja McFadyen, and here is a little bit about myself:

     Over the years, I have worked in various fields including financial management, education and human rights.

     My husband Cody runs our business, Cody Builders, and affords me the freedom to pursue my passion: poetry.

     I am on the Board of Directors of the Austin International Poetry Festival, and was recently elected to the board of the Austin Poetry Society. I conduct a children’s workshop in poetry, through Austin’s Homeless Artists Guild, and I publish a weekly e-newsletter for Austin Poets At Large, containing information about upcoming poetry events, poems by subscribers both local and international. I host a monthly poetry reading at the Ebony Sun Java House where I feature local and visiting poets of diverse ethnic backgrounds.

     I have a published collection of my poems, “If You Can’t Eat ’em, Join ’em,”.

     In the past year I have performed my works in Austin, Temple, Houston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, and the Washington, D.C. area. I usually attend 2-5 poetry readings a week, and particularly enjoy encouraging poets to read their poetry to audiences in the growing numbers of coffee house, gallery and bookstore venues.

     I am also a basketball fan, a chocolate lover and grandmother of two of the cutest little guys in the world, although I’m very modest about that.