Deborah Anne Tobola
Nov 11, 1955 -
Oct 16, 2024
Deborah Tobola was born in San Luis Obispo, Calif., on Nov. 11, 1955, to Charles Edward and Joanne Elizabeth Tobola. She died on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Santa Maria, Calif., from ovarian cancer. She was 68 years old. Deborah was a poet, memoirist, playwright, prison arts educator and journalist. She completed a B.A. in English at the University of Montana in 1988, and earned an M.F.A. in creative writing at the University of Arizona in 1990.
Deborah worked as a reporter for Alaska Women Magazine, the Frontiersman and the Anchorage Daily News during the 1980s, wining several Alaska Press Club awards and a District Attorney's Award for a series on child abuse. She was also a legislative aide for State Senator Jay Kerttula. In the late '90s, she served as the social services department director for the Cook Inlet Native Corporation. She was a co-founder of the Alaska Poetry League and the originator of Poetry Slams at the Fly-By-Night Club in Anchorage.
Her poetry has earned four Pushcart Prize nominations and three Academy of American Poets awards. She received a Children's Choice award for co-writing The Big Buck Adventure. Her memoir, "Hummingbird in Underworld: Teaching in a Men's Prison (She Writes Press, 2019)," was reviewed favorably in the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Review of Books and won several awards. It recounts her nine years managing the Arts in Corrections program at the California Men's Colony, San Luis Obispo. Under her direction, CMC residents staged seven original plays, won writing awards and were interviewed on local and national radio.
After retiring in 2008, she founded Poetic Justice Project, under the William James Association, with the vision of "unlocking hearts and minds with bold, original theatre." As the country's first theater company comprised exclusively of formerly incarcerated artists, PJP produced 12 plays, performed in 16 communities across California, including Alcatraz Island.
Deborah will be best remembered as a born poet whose work touched on our common humanity and struggles. Deborah left a powerful impression on many people's lives, inspiring those around her to embrace their power and vision as artists and advocates. She fostered community around collaboration and mentored generations of poets and actors. She was a voice for women, children and the forgotten. She embraced the victim and held a megaphone for the oppressed. She found mystery in the ordinary, "the news under the news," revealed epiphanies in our lives and saw the light in the darkest shadows.
Deborah was preceded in death by both parents; and uncle, John Richard "Dick" (Arlene) Bonner. She is survived by her partner, Gene Saint-Amand of Santa Maria; sons, Joseph T. Fox of Santa Maria and Dylan O'Harra (fiance Tiana-lei Flora) of Los Osos, Calif.; grandson, Joseph W. Fox of Ashland, Ore.; sisters, Bonnie (Brad) Sperber of Kooskia, Idaho, and Terri (Berry) Willcox of Fort Worth, Texas; brother, Bradford (Karen) Tobola of Kooskia; nephews, Troy Willcox of Saginaw, Texas, Christopher Heard of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Bradford Beau Tobola (Tiara Crooks) of Tacoma, Wash.; nieces, Jennifer (Erik) Snodgrass of Haslet, Texas, Kimberly (David) Feld of Salt Lake City, Utah, Courtney (Sean) Henry of Irvine, Calif.; and numerous grandnieces, grandnephews and cousins.
