Deborah Derrickson Kossmann 

Deborah Derrickson Kossmann’s completed memoir WHAT WE HOLD ON TO is the winner of Trio House Press's inaugural 2023 Aurora Polaris Creative Nonfiction Award and will be published in the fall of 2024. She is currently working on a collection of essays, COMPLICATIONS OF CAPTIVITY.

“Taking a Step Forward” and “Why We Needed a Prenup With Our Contractor” were published as “Modern Love” columns in The New York Times, and the "Tale of Two Primates" appeared as a "Menagerie" column in the New York Times Opinionator section. Deb won the Short Memoir Competition at the 2007 Philadelphia First Person Arts Festival. She has also received a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Poetry Fellowship and an Individual Creative Artist-Special Opportunity Stipend for Literature (Poetry) from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Her poetry, essays and feature articles have appeared in a range of literary journals and other publications including the Nashville Review, The Woven Tale Press, and Psychotherapy Networker. She has been a fellow in residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and The Ragdale Foundation on a number of occasions for both poetry and nonfiction.

A licensed clinical psychologist who has been in full time private practice for more than thirty years, Deb has experience in oncology, community mental health, and leadership consulting. Deb lives outside Philadelphia, PA with her husband, Marc, and Sofia Carmela, a cat with a whole lot of “tortitude.”