Goska worked her way through college as a nurse's aid. After graduation, she left to become a Peace Corps teacher in a remote village in Central Africa. Goska returned to America to hitchhike coast to coast, alone, with only her backpack. Goska served again in the Peace Corps, this time in the Himalayas of Nepal. Among the highest mountains on earth, Goska went months at a time not hearing a radio, or an engine, or seeing a plane overhead. After that she spent 1988-89 in Krakow, Poland at the Jagiellonian University. She participated in the street protests that marked the fall of the Soviet Empire.
Goska returned to the US to earn an MA in folklore at UC Berkeley under Alan Dundes, one of the world's most important folklore scholars.
She earned her PhD at Indiana University. In Bloomington, after a run-in with a notoriously abusive professor, Goska was stricken by a crippling illness, perilymph fistula, and she wrote her dissertation, now published and prize-winning book, "Bieganski," in spite of uncontrollable vomiting and vertigo that lasted for six years. Thanks to Indiana State Senator Vi Simpson, legislative aid Rick Gudal, and Dr. Richard T. Miyamoto, Goska received a pro bono surgery that restored her to health.
Goska's writing has appeared in literary, scholarly, and mainstream publications. Her essay "Political Paralysis" has proved a favorite of readers of the Paul Loeb anthology, "The Impossible Will Take a Little While," as has her play, "The Ramayana As If Sita Mattered," appearing in "Folklore Muse." Her writing has won the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant, the John Ashton Award, the Eva Kagan Kans Award, the PAHA Halecki Award, and others. Her work has appeared in scholarly journals including Polin, The Journal of Popular Culture, and The Journal of American Folklore, mainstream publications like Sojourners and The Sun, and on notable websites including Beliefnet, TheScreamOnline, Common Dreams, and Shroud.Com. Published reviews have called her work "admirable," "groundbreaking," "pioneering," "courageous," "important," and "inspirational."
Goska's latest work is a novel called SAVE SEND DELETE. Can an atheist and a Catholic find happily ever after? It's quite a journey.
