Biography

Terry Wolverton was born August 23, 1954 in Cocoa Beach, Florida. When she was just a year old, she left Florida with her mother and moved to Detroit, where she grew up. Her grandmother, Elsba Mae Miller, who had been a teacher, used to recite poetry to her, and Terry credits this with her love of language. From an early age Terry was interested in the arts, especially writing, music, and drama, and she graduated from Cass Technical High School's Performing Arts program in 1972.

Terry spent her first year of college at the University of Detroit in its BFA Theatre Program. In 1973 she transferred to the University of Toronto, where in addition to Theatre she also majored in Women's Studies.

In the summer of 1975 she attended Sagaris, an independent institute for the study of feminist political theory. She then enrolled in Thomas Jefferson College, an experimental school based in Western Michigan, and participated in its Women, World, and Wonder program.

In 1976, she moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in the Feminist Studio Workshop at the Woman's Building. Terry spent the next thirteen years working and creating at the Woman's Building where, in addition to producing performance and literary art, she was also instrumental in the Lesbian Art Project, the Incest Awareness Project, the Great American Lesbian Art Show (GALAS), and a White Women's Anti-Racism Consciousness-Raising Group. For a time she served as the nonprofit organization's Executive Director.

In 1982, Terry established a consulting business, Consult'Her, working with nonprofits, small businesses, and individual artists on issues related to vision, planning, resource development, marketing, and human resources.

She has been teaching performance skills and creative writing since 1977. In 1986, she launched the Visions and Revisions Writing Program at Connexxus Women's Center/Centro de Mujeres. In 1988, she established the Perspectives Writing Program at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

In 1997, she founded Writers At Work, a creative writing center where she continues to teach several weekly workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, and to provide creative consultations to writers. She is also an Associate Faculty Mentor in the MFA Writing Program at Antioch University, Los Angeles.

Terry Wolverton is the author of seven books: THE LABRYS REUNION, a novel; EMBERS, a novel in poems; INSURGENT MUSE, a memoir about the Woman's Building; BAILEY'S BEADS, a novel; and two collections of poetry, BLACK SLIP, MYSTERY BRUISE and SHADOW AND PRAISE. She has also edited fourteen compilations of literary work.

In 2000, Terry became a certified instructor of Kundalini Yoga.

She resides in Los Angeles.