Theresa Werba
books, poetry, song, and voice
New Release
What Was and Is: Formal Poetry and Free Verse (2024)
A unique collection of the best of Theresa Werba’s work over the last forty years. In it she explores such diverse issues as love, loss, faith, disillusionment, neurodivergence, historical figures and events, and the creative process. She is able to skillfully render such poetic forms as the sonnet, villanelle, ode, pantoum, terza rima, and nonce forms, in addition to easily crossing over into the world of free verse. She thus bridges the gap between these two normally opposing and segregated schools of poetry.
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“Werba goes from free verse to villanelle to sonnet with ease and mixes her subjects with acute observation and skill.”
Lynette G. Esposito, North of Oxford
New Release
Finally Autistic: Finding My Autism Diagnosis as a Middle-Aged Female (2024)
Theresa Werba tells the story of growing up in the 1960s as an undiagnosed female on the autism spectrum. She relates the unique challenges and struggles throughout her life as well as her achievements, her misdiagnosis, and her ultimate diagnosis with Autism Level 1/Asperger’s Syndrome at the age of 53. It is a story of courage, self-understanding, discovery, and vindication.
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"A fascinating and tragic portrait of a neurodivergent artist, widely acknowledged to be a master of formal lyric verse, and one of the best sonneteers writing today… a window into the mind of a great artist”
Andrew Benson Brown, literary critic, Classical Poets Live
Praise & Reviews
"An original and powerful voice for our time."
Hank Whittemore, 100 Reasons Why Shakespeare is the Earl of Oxford
“Touching, affecting and profoundly felt experiences, and I think represent real poetry from a real soul whom the Muse has visited. "
James Sale, poetry critic, Arts columnist, The Epoch Times
Videos
​"Theresa Werba's operatic training comes through in the innate cadence of her poetry and her recitation has all the passion of high theatre. She is both a classical performer of old and the impassioned writer/activist/educator we desperately need today. Theresa tells her story with almost brutal vulnerability but is never maudlin, rather she moves with a brisk pace and beautiful style that leaves you, as both reader and audience member, empowered and uplifted."
About
About Theresa Werba
Theresa Werba the author of eight books, four in poetry: What Was and Is: Formal Poetry and Free Verse (Bardsinger Books, 2024), Sonnets, a collection of sixty-five sonnets (Shanti Arts 2020), Longer Thoughts (Shanti Arts, 2020), and Jesus and Eros: Sonnets, Poems and Songs (Bardsinger Books, 2015). Her poetry and reviews have appeared in such journals as The Scarlet Leaf Review, The Wilderness House Literary Review, The Midwest book Review, The New Book Review, Spindrift, Mezzo Cammin, The Wombwell Rainbow, Fevers of the Mind, The Art of Autism, Serotonin, The Road Not Taken, and the Society of Classical Poets Journal. Werba holds a Bachelor of Arts in vocal music performance from Skidmore College and a Master of Music with distinction in voice pedagogy and performance from Westminster Choir College. She is also a contributing writer for Classical Singer Magazine where she writes on topics of interest to Classical singers. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Her poetic work ranges from forms such as the ode and sonnet to free verse, with topics ranging from neurodivergence, love, loss, aging, to faith and disillusionment and more.
In her book When Adoption Fails: Abuse, Autism, and the Search for My Identity discloses the history about her life as an undiagnosed autistic adoptee, who endured an abusive home and found both her birth mother and father. In Warning Signs of Abuse: Get Out Early and Stay Free Forever she gives help for women in the beginning stages of an abusive relationship.
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In her book Finally Autistic: Finding My Autism Diagnosis as a Middle-Aged Female she shares the story of her childhood, adolescence, and adulthood as an undiagnosed autistic female who received her autism diagnosis at the age of 53.
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Her recording Lullabies: Traditional American and International Songs may be found on Youtube as well as streaming services (under the name Theresa Rodriguez). Werba is the joyful mother of six children and grandmother to seven. Find Theresa Werba at www.theresawerba.com and on social media @thesonnetqueen.
