About

Poet, novelist, storyteller — trained as a scientist.

As a scientist, Thea realized she was more interested in the stories behind the data than the data itself. She's been writing and performing ever since.

Dr. Thea Iberall is an award-winning writer, storyteller, and scientist who crosses boundaries between science and the arts, history and the present, knowledge and emotion. She holds a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from UMass and a Master's degree in Writing from USC — and she's spent the decades since finding the poems and stories hiding inside the science.

She began studying writing with Terry Wolverton in Los Angeles in 1990. In 1998, she was selected for the team representing Los Angeles at the National Poetry Slams, making it all the way to the finals in front of 1,200 people, where LA placed third in the country. In 2001, she began developing contextual poetry — a form that weaves the language of science and history into verse, first practiced two centuries earlier by Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin.

Her poetry ranges from history to science to family. After a visit to Eastern Europe, she began writing about the Holocaust; five trips to Greece generated poems exploring the birth of the patriarchy — poems that would have been lost entirely if she hadn't jumped into the Aegean Sea to retrieve her journal after it flew from her grip while disembarking a cruise ship.

Since writing The Swallow and the Nightingale, Thea has become an activist for environmental and social justice. She sits on the leadership team of the Jewish Climate Action Network and the Green Sanctuary Committee of First Parish UU Church Medfield, and teaches writers how to write stories about climate change.

“Thea Iberall creates a shimmering bridge between matter and spirit, heart and head, poet and world.”

In 2015, along with her family, Thea was inducted into the International Educators Hall of Fame in recognition of their eclectic and innovative teaching techniques. She's been a college professor and adult-education instructor, and since 2005 has taught creative writing — her favorite topic being writing from the “Deep Voice,” a technique she learned from Los Angeles poet Jack Grapes.

Something you might not know For twenty years, Thea worked as a clown named Little Blue — juggling, doing magic, and performing at parties, parades, schools, and street corners, winning awards at clown conventions along the way. She still pulls out a trick now and then, just in her second act as a poet and storyteller.
Personal statement “My parents taught us to contribute to society, be curious, and volunteer. I learned about my advantages (being white) and disadvantages (being a woman), and about white and male privilege from Peggy McIntosh. My creative writing focuses on shifting away from patriarchal thinking, and it was Gandhi's seven social sins that coalesced a direction for me. Until she died at 102, our mother always said, ‘Dwell on human kindness.’ That is the nightingale song we learned; that is the song I spread.”
  • EducationPh.D., Computational Neuroscience, UMass · M.A., Writing, USC
  • HonorsInductee, International Educators Hall of Fame (2015)
  • StageLA National Poetry Slam finalist team, 1998
  • CraftOriginator of contextual poetry, a form blending science and verse
  • ServiceLeadership team, Jewish Climate Action Network; Green Sanctuary Committee, First Parish UU Medfield; Board member, Rainbow Lifelong Learning Institute
  • AffiliationsNortheast Storytelling (NEST) · Jewish Storytelling Coalition · AAUW
  • TeachingCreative writing instructor since 2005, including writing stories about climate change