Mary Blinn
Assistant to the ChairMary Blinn is a Chicago area poet, songwriter, and interdisciplinary artist. She has been writing poems for ten years, and her work appears in Ariel, Echo Magazine and After Hours. She is a seven-time winner of Triton College’s local and international poetry award (1995 – 2001), and a Pushcart Prize nominee for her poem, Silver Spikes (2000). She frequents area open mic poetry readings, and is a regular featured poet for After Hours Magazine. Mary’s poetry installations have been exhibited at Gallery 312 in Chicago (2004) and at the Oak Park Art League in Oak Park, Illinois (2001). Her first collection of video poems, Love Me/Wash Me, premiered at the Visible Verse Festival in Vancouver in November 2004. Mary co-wrote, produced and performed a CD of children’s songs, A Handful of Sunshine (Ocean Street, 1998), and her work is included in a compilation CD, Kid Tunes (Piano Press, 2002). Mary earned an B.A. in art and an M.A in interdisciplinary art from Columbia College Chicago, and is currently working on poetry in digital video media.