Shilpa Kamat is a poet, writer, educator, visual artist, and wellness coach based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

::artist:: Creative expression has always been central to my being, whether I am writing, drawing, painting, or  dancing. I have an MFA in Creative Writing, and these days, my primary focus is on poetics and fiction (both YA and speculative). I create visual art as well. My creativity also finds expression in cooking, parenting, and connecting with the natural world, especially forests.

::educator:: I am passionate about learning and teaching, from delving into subject matter to supporting emotional, mental, and physical health. I’ve been a credentialed yoga teacher since the early 2000s and a Multiple Subjects teacher for over a decade (I have a clear California credential). I teach both young people and adults in classroom environments, outdoors, and online. 

::wellness coach:: I feel called to guide others in moving towards healthy and sustainable lives in a variety of ways, from teaching mindfulness classes to supporting youth and families in crisis. As a healing arts practitioner, I incorporate my knowledge of and experience with yoga practices, interactive visualizations, creative expression/writing, and/or Reiki (which I sometimes teach). I served on the Health and Spiritual Well being committee of a land based community where I resided for some years; the healing and vitality fostered by connecting to wild spaces continues to inform my practices, and I have led youth and adults on many excursions into wild ecosystems.

::advocate:: On a large scale, our planet is in desperate need of healing and restoration; ecological and human sustainability needs to be central to our policies and practices to ensure that our communities and  ecosystems are healthy. I feel called to do my part to help. I have joined with others to advocate for peace and justice, especially for immigrants, indigenous communities, threatened ecosystems, the LGBT community, those who face an opportunity and resource gap, and other vulnerable populations. I currently feel that my writing is my best path towards advocacy, whether I am  collaborating with other writers to raise awareness of struggles or representing diverse communities and positive visions in my work.