About Joseph Cavanaugh
Joseph Cavanaugh is a writer, poet, and journalist who lives in Ormond Beach, FL. He authored his first book, A Brief History of the Cavanaugh Family in 1972 and since then has published four poetry books: Poetry Jam with Toast and Tea, California Dreamin, Love Happens: A Target on My Chest, and Transcendental Targets. He is now proud to release his newest work and first children's book, The Poet and The Wondersmith, which celebrates his Irish Heritage.
Joseph Cavanaugh
Shirley and Joseph Cavanaugh
Career
A writer, poet and journalist from an early age, he authored his first book, A Brief History of the Cavanaugh Family," in 1972. His second book, The Peace Dividend—Defense Conversion Through Higher Education" was published by the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute in 2000. Supported by the Ford Foundation, he documented the conversion of the Fort Ord Army Base to an international model for military base closure as a center for education, environmental conservation and sustainable economic development.
In addition to his professional writing and personal journaling, he worked as a reporter for the East African Standard in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; wrote a controversial Masters thesis on bargaining tactics in the Vietnamese conflict, and won a New York Times writing award. He also taught college classes in reading, writing, critical thinking and resource development and did writing and research for the Academy of Independent Scholars on the environmental impacts of nuclear accidents.
In 2010 Joseph Cavanaugh published a collection of his poetry, Poetry Jam with Toast and Tea, which was published in a second edition by Writers Ink Press. In 2014, he published a second collection of poems— Love Happens: A Target on My Chest —through Create Space, Amazon. His third poetry collection, California Dreamin was published by the Creative Happiness Institute, Daytona Beach, Florida in 2015. This new collection, Transcendental Targets, is published through Taylor and Seale Publishing.
In addition to all of the above, he hosted a live call-in radio show for four years on public radio station KGNU in Pacific Grove, California called The Art of Politics and has performed professionally as a poet, speaker and story-teller. Former President of the Florida State Poets Association (FSPA), he is currently Vice President and Chair of the Blackberry Peach Awards, a national spoken and written word poetry competition for The National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS). Cavanaugh travels widely to support poetry, culture and the arts here and abroad. The poet can truly be considered a Renaissance person for the many talents he possesses and what he has contributed to the people, poetry, the arts, and culture of his local community, the country and the world.
Early Life
Joseph Cavanaugh graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. in government and began to follow John Kennedy's vision of public service by joining the Peace Corps and working in East Africa as a teacher and Community Development Worker. He never imagined that his interests would span the globe in his service Master's degree in Political Science at SUNY in Buffalo, he went to work for VISTA, the Domestic Peace Corps, eventually working his way up to National Program Director position in Washingtron, D.C. Later, after moving to Boulder, Colorado, he became a political activist.
In Boulder, he began to raise his family and worked as a consultant, carpenter, and bookstore manager. Meanwhile he became interested in the new Renaissance of literary luminaries such as Allan Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, William Burroughs and other outstanding writers and teachers of the Naropa Institute.
Later, as Community Development Director for the city of Boulder, he helped put together the downtown Pearl Street Mall and Redevelopment Plan, Regional Bikeway System, Natural Flood Control Master Planning, Mixed Income Housing and new Library/Senior Citizens Center. In 1980, he became party nominee of both the Citizen and Democrat parties for the Colorado State Senate and lost in the Ronald Reagan landslide.
Moving to California, he became Community Development Director of the city of Lawndale in Los Angeles, and continued in a similar position for Monterey County, California. In 1995, he was chosen to coordinate the development of a master plan for the Civilian Reuse of the largest army training center in the U.S. at Fort Ord, California.
