Poet | Teacher | Storyteller

Claudia Jensen Dudley grew up near San Francisco and received her B.A. from Stanford University. Poetry, music and traditional world literature have been profound influences since childhood. In 1988, she trained with California Poets in the School and initiated a poetry residency at Cabrillo Elementary School in San Francisco that spanned 13 years. She also worked in many short-term poetry residencies in San Francisco and other Bay Area public schools from 1990 to 2011.

Her storytelling and poetry work expanded during 16 years’ work with the Richmond District After School Collaborative, lauded as a model among models in after-school programming. There she began learning and telling epic myth cycles and individual folk tales, accompanied by live, improvised harp music. The stories, instantly loved by students, became an integral part of her teaching workshops.

She currently leads writing classes at The Sequoias and Vintage Coventry, senior living communities in San Francisco. She has brought her Troubadour Heart Storytelling residencies to public elementary school students since 2012; told stories and myth cycles in The Sequoias’ Memory Care Unit from 2013-2015; and has also brought folktales and myth cycles to San Francisco home schoolers.

She has published two volumes and a chapbook of poetry and has composed three song cycles for soprano and piano. Married to writer William Dudley (author, The Chosen River), a mother of two daughters and grandmother of two, she has deep ongoing interests in history, comparative religion and holistic health. She is also a practicing reflexologist.