A nationally published author and poet of nearly 50 years, Criss E. Cannady came from a family of educators and recalls fondly her memories of teaching poetry classes throughout the state of Arizona and Los Angeles County. Supported by a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California Irvine and an MFA in writing from the University of Arizona, she has served as a consultant, lecturer and poet throughout many California academic institutions and was the director of creative writing and remedial English at Eastern Arizona College between 1977 and 1980. While at Eastern Arizona College, she notably founded the writing laboratory. She has authored such works as “For Such a Time As This” and “Lakes & Legacies,” funded by an NEA grant, and was featured in the Granger’s Index of Poetry for “Sunlight in the Cafeteria” and “The Sitting Room in the Opera” in 1984. She was also featured in LaVerne Harrell Clark’s Photographic Collection of top 105 American poets: “The Face of Poetry,” which was critically well-received.
Alongside her creative pursuits, Ms. Cannady is an accomplished business consultant who has been serving Pacific Gas & Electric Company as a senior business analyst and project manager since 2007. Earlier in her career, she served such companies as Hewlett-Packard, NCR, Telos and MC Associates, Inc., and she notably excelled as the director of communications for the American Society for Training and Development from 1983 to 1984. Likewise, she has served as a continuing education instructor for numerous universities and state colleges and was a guest speaker of English at the University of Pittsburgh, at Bradford and Carlow College.
Ms. Cannady was one of four artists chosen to represent the federally funded program “Arts in Arizona Towns,” and was further featured in the monthly television series “Eyewitness Arizona,” which she cites as a career highlight. She has also contributed to several acclaimed publications, such as the Black Warrior Review, Cincinnati Poetry Review, Southern Poetry Review, Louisville Review and the Gramercy Review (special edition of four Arizona poets), among others.
As a testament to her success, Ms. Cannady has earned numerous accolades and honors, including three nominations for the Pushcart Prize in Poetry and a Recognition Award from the Academy of American Poetry Magazine in 2012 for supporting the organization. Additionally, a bilingual anthology she co-edited was named One of the Year’s Best Books by the Library Journal in 1980. The American Society for Training and Development bestowed upon her the Outstanding Contribution Award.
Looking toward the future, Ms. Cannady intends to ease into a well-deserved retirement from the corporate world while remaining focused on her writing and publishing. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, reading, and watching sports programs.
