Sheila Packa

Background

About Sheila Packa

Sheila Packa is a poet, writer, and teacher. Her newest book is Surface Displacements (Wildwood River Press, 2022). She has received numerous awards for her writing: In 2022, she received a Creative Support grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. In 2020, a MSAB Artist Initiative Grant for poetry. She also has had support from the Finlandia Foundation, the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, and the Loft/McKnight Fellowship programs. She has been an adjunct teacher at English and Creative Writing at Lake Superior College and completed the creative aging teaching artist training presented by Aroha Philanthropies and the Minnesota State Arts Board. She was a semifinalist in the Raw Stages (for 2016) competition at the History Theater. Her book Night Train Red Dust: Poems of the Iron Range reflects women's history, labor history, immigrants, mining and geology from Minnesota's Iron Range. She has five books of poems and a certificate from the Creative Community Leadership Institute in 2013. She edited a collection of 75 writers from the Lake Superior region, titled Migrations: Poetry & Prose for Life's Transitions. She has been Duluth's Poet Laureate, and she teaches writing workshops in the community.