Martha Deed

Martha Deed, the Sporkworld team member about whom this About is about, is on her third or fourth career -- or her 20th -- depending upon how one counts. A practicing Psychologist who wrote for professional and lay publications for more than 30 years, she quit the "psychologist" part in 2001 to write and create web-based projects.

At the same time, she moved to a house on the Erie Canal, which is surrounded by animal and plant habitats that beg documentation. The house itself, in North Tonawanda, NY, develops episodic disasters which trigger poems and web.art.

Many of these poems and multi-media installations have been published, and they are linked to her website.

In addition, Martha has published several short videos, including a series which roughly conforms to the seasons in Western New York State: Winter, Summer, Winter, Winter.

Her work has appeared in many print and online journals as well as in gallery shows including Scope 2006 with Sporkworld's creator, Millie Niss, her favorite collaborator. Her chapbooks have been published by Peter Ganick's small chapbook project (2006) and Furniture Press (2004). Her poems have appeared in several anthologies, including those published by Iowa Press and Red Hen.

Martha attended Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota) and obtained her BA from The New School (New York City). She was awarded a Ph.D. from Boston University and retired from academic life until becoming a non-tenured faculty member of the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School thirty years later. Aside from her private practice and writing, she participated in psychology association governance and task forces on the local, state, and national level, spending much of her time working with others to stem the erosion of adequate services to mentally-ill consumers and their families.
(Source: Sporkworld.org)