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Marv Klassen-Landis coaches individuals and organizations in creative writing and storytelling as avenues of self-discovery, healing, communication and community.
A Vermont Arts Council roster artist since 1990, Marv tells stories, performs poetry and leads written and spoken word residencies and workshops. He works with all ages, in hospitals, schools, libraries, prisons and camps.
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Marv's clients include the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, and the Jack Byrne Center for Hospice and Palliative Care. He has participated in studies of creative writing with advanced cancer and neurology patients. He also frequently presents for the Children's Literacy Foundation.
Marv has published poetry in a variety of journals and is the author/illustrator of Jump, Children, Jump! With Michael Zerphy, he co-founded Children's Voices Theatre, which promotes children's love of writing through theatre programs.
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DARTMOUTH-HITCHCOCK MEDICAL CENTER ARTS TEAM
New Hampshire Public Radio: Soothing Cancer with the Arts
Mask-Making Helps Participants See Themselves Better
Telling Our Stories: A Cancer Center Anthology
DHMC receives 2017 Governor’s Arts Award for Arts in Health
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Palliative Care physician Max Vergo, MD, says that hospitals “often take good care of patients’ medical issues, but often are not the best place to have your emotional or ‘soup for the soul’ needs met. The creative arts team [at Dartmouth-Hitchcock] helps us care for people in a very personalized way and to process their emotions around illness...." READ MORE (pp 2-3, 14-19.)
writing has opened my eyes to myself
I am always surprised at what comes out
not ruminating over sentences and phrases
has been liberating for me
my family says there has been a change
I have opened up more
I have shared my poems with my family
an expression of my inner self
a participant in Norris Cotton Cancer Center's Writing Circle
Shannon has purple hair or sometimes orange.
She has no filter....
Twelve days after his bone marrow transplant,
Dr. Blair Brooks reads his poem "My Hairdresser"
at Norris Cotton Cancer Center's annual arts event.
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"When Bruce Gaylord came to the Norris Cotton Cancer Center for one of his chemotherapy infusions, he had no idea where his open spirit would lead him. But when he was approached by creative writing specialist Marv Klassen-Landis and asked if he wanted to try a writing activity, he was game. One thing led to another and soon Bruce had written song lyrics called 'Biker’s Dilemma.'" SEE VIDEO
"Marv Klassen-Landis recently completed a two-week storytelling and writing artist residency at Rumney Memorial School…. Marv taught in every classroom, pre-K through sixth grade. My observation of Marv in action was that he was relaxed and had a wonderful rapport with the students…. It was so much fun to see him interact with the youngest learners and watch him encourage the oldest students. He empowered kids to try their newly acquired skills with confidence despite a healthy dose of nerves."
Jennifer Campbell, Art Teacher
Rumney Memorial School, Middlesex, Vermont
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Family Literacy Night at Peterborough Elementary School
Learning through Movement at Molly Stark School
Children's Literacy Foundation
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"Marv Klassen-Landis lives in Windsor, Vermont and recently visited Snapdragon Inn on a snowy morning to discuss poetry, art, education, and his passion for the creative. There was no way to capture the diversity of Marv's work in one short video, but we hope you enjoy some of his wonderful poems and thoughts on art."
