We are honored to welcome poet, memoirist, editor Sandra Beasley as our fall speaker in the Visiting Writers Series on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2026

Sandra Beasley is author of four poetry collections: "Made to Explode," winner of the Housatonic Book Award; "Count the Waves; I Was the Jukebox," winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize; and "Theories of Falling," winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize. 

Honors for her work include a 2015 NEA Literature Fellowship, the Center for Book Arts Chapbook Prize, the John Montague International Poetry Fellowship and six DCCAH Artist Fellowships. She is also the author of the memoir "Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life" and the editor of "Vinegar and Char: Verse from the Southern Foodways Alliance." She lives in Washington, D.C. She serves as the poetry editor for Blair, a nonprofit press based in Durham, North Carolina.

Recommended Reading:

• "A Live in Stanzas: How Phi Beta Kappa Shaped One Poet's Beginnings" in The American Scholar, September 8, 2026.
• "The Power of Claiming My Identity as a Disabled Writer: Sandra Beasley Embraces the 'Medicalized Body'" Literary Hub, February 18, 2021.
• Poems by Sandra Beasley. 
• "Heirloom" and "Prohibition Toast" in Gravy from Southern Food Alliance.
• Video Reading: "Still Life With Sex."