https://www.deborahstokol.com/writing daily 0.75 2026-06-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/2494b8dd-5b6d-4378-bdff-1eb52fe41816/Library.jpg Writing - Penning Poetry, Lyrics, and Prose I have always loved words and stories. A voracious reader for most of my life, I have long enjoyed leaping into the world of a great tale. I like wordplay, am fluent in Spanish, proficient in Italian, and have taken courses in Hebrew and French. I have written poetry, essays, short stories, and songs since I learned to read and write, and one of my majors at UC Berkeley was English (the other, music), my Master’s from USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism (where I co-founded what is now the award-winning Annenberg Digital News and won the Director’s Award for Excellence and Carnegie- and Knight Foundations News 21 Multimedia Reporting Fellowship) was multimedia journalism. Here, you can read and download the liner notes and lyrics to my recent and upcoming album, “Being, Becoming”. This is a recent piece I wrote for my Substack about a chord progression I think signals something very specific — and literary — in film scores from numerous cinematic works. I interned at Los Angeles Magazine and New America Media, have written for The Huffington Post, Berkeley Poetry Review, Buzzfeed, the Sacramento Bee, La Opinion, The News & Observer, Beliefnet, Ravishly, The Hogwarts Professor, Spot.Us, Our Weekly, Vocal and Medium media, Eucatastrophe, and Anglofiles, among others, and worked at the Los Angeles Times before transitioning to full-time teaching of English and student Journalism (though I continued to freelance). Others have cited my articles in their academic pieces in journals and for their courses. As a reporter, I enjoyed covering religion, education, and the arts and have a passion for OpEd, arts criticism, and the long form and meditative essay. As a young adult, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Orwell, and Joan Didion had significant impacts on me, and I love teaching the essay-form. In my prose, poetry, and lyrics, I often write about nostalgia and the passage of time, music, film, and things folkloric. For an edition of Pedagogy and Profession, I wrote and published “Teaching Chaucer from the Perspective of a Troubadour and Using Music in the Classroom to Further Explain Literature,” an academic paper and personal essay’s explaining my use of music in the English classroom and teaching literature and writing through music. It also includes links to the music I wrote to accompany my teaching of literature and that I discuss in this work. I have written about Judaism, women, joy, and magic for At the Well. I really enjoy editing others’ work and recently served as a peer-reviewer for Literature Compass in addition to doing so on a contract-basis. Of the roughly 250 songs I have released since 2020, nearly 100 present lyrics I have penned (not including their various versions), and I take great pride in the storytelling I share in those works. I have further writing education from Cambridge University, UCLA, and Bard College and am grateful to have had the mentorship of talented educators and writers. I continue to both attend and lead writing workshops and have written several manuscripts — of lyrics, poetry, short stories, and essays — and am always jotting ideas down in sundry journals and notes for later. https://www.deborahstokol.com/home daily 1.0 2026-06-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/be48775c-2be3-4917-b5e1-cea72331f71e/Bard+at+the+Lake Home - Deborah Stokol, Composer, Educator, Writer: Bard Welcome! My name is Deborah Stokol, and, like the bards of old, I share musical and literary stories and have taught and edited language and expression for decades. Externalization of the internal world matters a great deal to me, and I love to work with other art forms besides music and writing such as photography, drawing, and design. I believe in an interdisciplinary life of learning and sharing, warmth and experience. Similarly, I can help you externalize your world — by my working with you in the role of teacher or editor on your own writing and self-expression, by helping you in the guise of a coach to realize your creative vision, or by working creatively with you in the form of composer, producer, performer, writer, or instructional and curriculum designer on your project or class. Check out the sections of this space to learn more, and may you enjoy the visit! https://www.deborahstokol.com/shop daily 0.75 2026-06-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/02958268-8776-4957-b6ee-df36c5618e50/Being%2C+Becoming+%28A+Fully+Acoustic+Album%29+-+Deborah+Stokol+%28Album+Cover%29+-+March+6%2C+2026.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/9b4b3d07-d6d9-4421-bacc-ac068721e171/Being%2C+Being+%2B+Synths+Cover+June+6%2C+2026.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/1f6b164e-db6f-495d-b0dc-2e34beb270bf/1.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/71c84296-d8b6-4548-bfaa-06d97c182c34/The+Lost+Album+-+Cover+-+Deborah+Stokol+-+March+2024.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/ab6e5a0a-5886-42c2-921e-761f26044565/Awen+%28The+Cauldron+of+Inspiration%2C+Part+Ii%29+-+Album+Cover+-+Deborah+Stokol+-+2023.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/06244272-9a07-4dda-a600-1818898a157c/Hearth+Song+Album+Cover.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/1f279cb4-4ac6-4fb2-bc47-ff53f4d7a216/Tapestry+.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/a8a96f61-d6d2-4d68-8945-12de94f6387b/In+the+Deep+and+Dazzling+Darkness+Album+Cover+%28Deborah+Stokol%2C+October+2025%29.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/86954672-fce9-4ee4-8ebb-111ed73290f2/Time%27s+Cartographer+Final+Album+Cover+January+2024+-+Deborah+Stokol.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/7d71e6bc-a457-428c-a0d3-01800ce6434e/Old+Wives%27+Tales.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/d4b9e7aa-6419-4185-ac46-2fbd5f1cc246/Tapestry+II.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/ffca7d8f-7bea-4dd0-a431-e85baf319405/Illuminations+Album+Cover+%28Deborah+Stokol%29+-+July+2025.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/57d591c9-1a39-4843-bd9e-54c08d82de53/Hinterlands+Album+Cover+-+Deborah+Stokol+%28October+2024%29.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/fe4caf8e-4396-4142-b84c-0e2b0172ee2a/Sylvan+Soul.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/b82013e7-0fbf-4f26-bf91-0cbe7c98ca22/Ill-Tempered+Clavier+Album+Cover.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/8ce4494f-679d-4406-80c0-13a41be10114/Bard.jpeg https://www.deborahstokol.com/teaching-tutoring daily 0.75 2026-06-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/12038630-0658-414b-93ec-088e4088afe6/Book-Lined+Shelves+at+Blenheim+Palace https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/ca7fd304-2cd1-4090-bf76-4dad22dd8422/Poetry+Books https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/48297890-dc17-466e-8da5-4e5aad9f101d/Odyssey+Books Teaching https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/b1438a17-4703-4f93-9cbb-57904242068b/Arthurian+Legends%2C+Child+Ballads%2C+Emily+Dickinson+Poetry+and+Journals+With+Books+on+a+Desk Teaching https://www.deborahstokol.com/music daily 0.75 2026-06-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/1782777360692-CJ970FC3P31Q2EQE3ZFQ/Garden%2BHarp.jpg Music I had wanted to play the harp, specifically the Celtic harp for years before I got one for myself. So many of the books I had read and loved growing up shared bards plucking this ancient instrument. I got this one six years ago and taught myself to play, and it has been an exciting musical and storytelling adventure since. I love how different instruments allow for different styles of music. After writing classically-inspired-jazz-alternative-Russian-Jewish-Vaudevilian music, the harp allowed me to really write folk for the first time, given its sound and capabilities. This link takes you to my amazon music page. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/14518dba-c513-46f1-839f-bb7ed3d67b33/Screen+Shot+2021-08-16+at+8.41.22+PM.png Music I am so grateful to have received this Martin traveling guitar for my birthday three years ago. It is so portable and manageable in size and fret board. This link takes you to my Instagram music page. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/1782777301188-FCVR3VMLN48VYW433EHG/Mandolin%252B2.jpg Music I had always been curious about the lute and mandolin, loving the sound, shape, and imagery. This is a bowl back mandolin like the kind Corelli would have played, and this one is handmade for me from Crete. It uses walnut, spruce, pear, and ebony woods, and I bought it in 2021 and am teaching myself to play, writing instrument-specific songs and liking the challenge of this new storytelling vehicle. This link takes you to my Pandora music page. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/1761080575947-ZR77IUNZ7SXB43OQPIVE/At%2Bthe%2Bpiano.jpg Music https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/db7f4fe0-3d23-4c3a-9bfd-e1b360b5eaf6/Screen+Shot+2025-04-11+at+5.20.28+PM.png Music https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/ab27fb43-1e68-4c07-a57d-554734c28f27/Screen+Shot+2026-06-29+at+4.50.43+PM.png Music https://www.deborahstokol.com/about daily 0.75 2026-06-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/005274f1-6c72-421f-a46a-ddbc12c06ce3/In+Front+of+Getty+Villa+Mosaic.peg.jpg About https://www.deborahstokol.com/contact daily 0.75 2026-06-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6116d27aa50a925f150045f5/2eed8600-4a4a-4df0-96d4-ac9f5c702faf/Swan+Door+London Contact https://www.deborahstokol.com/videos-1 daily 0.75 2026-06-29