Biography Richard Gold founded the Pongo Teen Writing Project, a nonprofit that offers therapeutic poetry programs to adolescents who are homeless, in jail, or in other ways leading difficult lives. Many Pongo authors have suffered childhood trauma, including abuse and exposure to violent death. And many Pongo authors use poetry to communicate about these experiences for the first time. In its 16 years, Pongo has worked with over 5,500 teens, published 13 anthologies, and given away over 12,500 poetry books to distressed youth. The Pongo web site provides therapeutic writing opportunities for youth anywhere, as well as resources for counselors and teachers – www.pongoteenwriting.org . Before founding Pongo, Richard was managing editor of Microsoft Press. Richard’s own poetry, “The Odd Puppet Odyssey,” was published by Black Heron Press in 2003. In 2010, Richard was named a Microsoft Integral Fellow, honored for his work with Pongo, by the Microsoft Alumni Foundation.
