Today we're talking with Juliet Cutler, a teacher, author, and Serenbe resident, whose memoir, Among The Maasai, documents her time teaching English at a Maasai girls' school in the late '90s and she addresses the challenges inherent in tackling issues of extreme poverty across vastly different cultures. In this episode, we talk about the power of educating women and girls, how Juliet has continued to advocate for Maasai girls over the last 20 years, and the importance of having a community.
Juliet Cutler is a writer, an educator, and a designer of award-winning exhibits for museums, parks, and cultural centers throughout the world. Her teaching career began in Tanzania in 1999, and since that time she has been an activist for girls’ education worldwide.
Cutler’s literary and professional publications now number more than two dozen, and she has taught writing in many settings including as adjunct faculty for the College of St. Scholastica in Minnesota. Her first book, Among the Maasai, has received critical acclaim through several national and international awards including the Independent Publisher Book Award, the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, and the National Indie Excellence Award.
In 2009, she was selected by Orion Magazine to participate in their annual writing workshop, and in 2013, she participated in a writer’s residency at La Muse in Labastide-Esparbairenque, France. In 2019, The Serenbe Institute for Art, Culture, and the Environment honored Cutler as a Serenbe Fellow—a distinction given to nationally recognized thought leaders, scholars, and artists.