Meet Ronna

Ronna Bloom is a poet, registered psychotherapist, (CRPO inactive) and author of six books of poetry. Her work has been broadcast on the CBC, recorded by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, translated into Bangla and Chinese, and shortlisted for several Canadian literary awards. 

Ronna runs workshops, coaches writers, and gives talks on poetry, spontaneity, presence and health care. In Rx for Poetry, Ronna writes and prescribes poems on the spot. She brings twenty years of psychotherapy practice to her work as a poet and facilitator.

Ronna created the Poet in Residence programme at Mount Sinai Hospital in 2012 and is Poet in Residence in the Health, Arts and Humanities Programme at U of T. In these roles she offers students, staff, and health care professionals opportunities to articulate their experiences through poetry and reflective writing. She is a frequent guest speaker at universities, hospitals, community groups and institutions across Ontario.

Ronna has performed with Juno award-winning musician Jayme Stone. A one minute film based on the poem “Grief Without Fantasy” was made by filmmaker Midi Onodera and screened in the Official Selection at the Toronto Urban Film Festival. In a collaboration with PLANT Architects, her poem "The City" was painted 30 meters long on King Street in Toronto for the summer of 2018.

Her book, The More, (Pedlar Press 2017) was long-listed for The 2018 City of Toronto Book Awards.

Ronna’s new book, A Possible Trust: The Poetry of Ronna Bloom, Selected with an Introduction by Phil Hall was published in fall 2023 by Wilfrid Laurier University Press.