Biography
Victoria McArtor holds a Master of Fine Arts from Oklahoma State University and is a former professor for the University of Tulsa. Her poetry, prose, and travel murmurs have been published in over 70 literary journals and magazines, and she is listed as an inventor on three U.S. patents related to medical devices and 3D visualization technology.
In 2020, McArtor’s fiction “Phantom Wave” was named a finalist in Meridian’s Short Prose Prize of which, the editor says, I am taken by its poetic language and ending– so unsettling and beautiful. It lingers.
Reverse Selfie, a stunning book of black and white photographs by internationally acclaimed photographer Matthew Phips accompany McArtor’s ode to Tulsa’s lush history, beautiful landmarks and unique hallmarks. The narrator of these poems grapples with her relationship with social media and attempts to turn the camera from self to surroundings.
McArtor is co-founder of a poetry and collaborative arts nonprofit, MUSED. The vision of MUSED. is to put poetry back into the everyday affairs of the people, period. Curated by McArtor and her team, MUSED. has hosted workshops for middle school and high school students; for technology start-ups and bankruptcy attorneys; for birthday parties and anniversary celebrations; and created a city-wide poetry contest where winning poems were displayed on Tulsa transportation buses.
McArtor developed the curriculum for The Reverse Selfie Project, a 6-week critical thinking and writing workshop for high-school students. For a generation of students who have never lived without technology at their fingertips, The Reverse Selfie Project is an opportunity for them to tap into their deeper, truer selves and let go of the superficial façade they present via social media. To date, the workshop has prompted hundreds of students to put down their phones and pick up a pen.
MUSED., along with the University of Tulsa, has given writing workshops at various mental health organizations to individuals struggling with mental wellness. The results of these workshops were published in the Journal of Poetry Therapy (the Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research and Education) under the title Evaluation of the effects of single dosage poetry workshops for inpatient adolescents and children. The focus of this paper is on an examination of the effectiveness of a 1-h workshop designed to teach poetry as a coping tool for children and adolescents in crisis and psychiatric facilities. This study was designed to measure poetry self-efficacy, belief in the usefulness of poetry as a coping tool, and changes in feelings of isolation and loneliness. Overall, the results of this study suggest adolescents and children in crisis centers and inpatient units may both enjoy and benefit from a single exposure to poetry.
Not a single workshop participant has paid for a MUSED. mental wellness class, thanks to the fundraising ability of McArtor and her team, as well as the overall generosity of Tulsa’s citizens (who are some of the friendliest people on earth).
McArtor has held professional licenses in Life & Health Insurance, Real Estate, and Mortgages, and has built a large portfolio of clients across multiple industries by obsessing over the connection between poetry and sales. For example, in 2016, McArtor lead a corporate workshop to help the Mutual of Omaha 401K sales team rewrite sales scrips using tenets of poetic theory such as imagery, metaphor, and rhythm.
Currently working primarily in the technology industry, McArtor is the lead creative at Victoria Copied, LLC., a creative copywriting agency based in Southern California. Victoria Copied helps companies simplify complex ideas and evoke emotion amongst their ideal audience. For example, McArtor is responsible for creating engaging pitch decks that have helped a medical device company raise over $3M toward its commercialization goals. Can a well-constructed sentence save lives? McArtor is on a mission to illustrate that it can.