Sanam Sheriff is a queer poet, artist, and educator from Bangalore, India. They have received support from the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Kundiman, Brew & Forge, The Watering Hole, and The Seventh Wave, among others. Sanam’s work has been published in Indiana Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Academy of American Poets, Washington Square Review, Outlook India, and elsewhere. Sanam holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. They currently serve as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College where they organize the Reading Series. Sanam is working, with much love, on their debut poetry collection.

This Month’s Poet is Raena Shirali, who will be giving a reading and leading us through this April’s writing workshop where poets will have the opportunity to generate and share new work.

Raena Shirali is the author of two collections of poetry. Her first book, GILT, was released by YesYes Books and won the 2018 Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award. Published by Black Lawrence Press in October 2022, her second book, summonings, won the 2021 Hudson Prize and was shortlisted for the Julie Suk Award. Winner of a Pushcart Prize & a former Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University, Shirali is also the recipient of prizes and honors from VIDA, Gulf Coast, Boston Review, & Cosmonauts Avenue. Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, The Nation, The Rumpus, & elsewhere. 

Sanam Sheriff is a queer poet, artist, and educator from Bangalore, India. They have received support from the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Kundiman, Brew & Forge, The Watering Hole, and The Seventh Wave, among others. Sanam’s work has been published in Indiana Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Academy of American Poets, Washington Square Review, Outlook India, and elsewhere. Sanam holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. They currently serve as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College where they organize the Reading Series. Sanam is working, with much love, on their debut poetry collection.

This Month’s Poet is Taylor Alyson Lewis, who will be giving a reading and leading us through this April’s writing workshop where poets will have the opportunity to generate and share new work.

Taylor Alyson Lewis (he/him) is a poet and educator. He holds a BA in English from Spelman College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University-Camden. At Rutgers, he taught first-year composition and was a research assistant and project manager at the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice. He has also been a visiting instructor in creative writing at Bryn Mawr College and a high school English and Social Studies teacher. Taylor has received fellowships to support his writing from Lambda Literary, Fine Arts Work Center, Tin House Summer Workshop, and Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, where he was awarded the Queer Writer Fellowship in Prose. His work appears in Nat. Brut, Poetry Online, Voicemail Poems, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere.

Sanam Sheriff is a queer poet, artist, and educator from Bangalore, India. They have received support from the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Kundiman, Brew & Forge, The Watering Hole, and The Seventh Wave, among others. Sanam’s work has been published in Indiana Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Academy of American Poets, Washington Square Review, Outlook India, and elsewhere. Sanam holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. They currently serve as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College where they organize the Reading Series. Sanam is working, with much love, on their debut poetry collection.

This Month’s Poet is Taylor Alyson Lewis, who will be giving a reading and leading us through this April’s writing workshop where poets will have the opportunity to generate and share new work.
Taylor Alyson Lewis (he/him) is a poet and educator. He holds a BA in English from Spelman College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University-Camden. At Rutgers, he taught first-year composition and was a research assistant and project manager at the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice. He has also been a visiting instructor in creative writing at Bryn Mawr College and a high school English and Social Studies teacher. Taylor has received fellowships to support his writing from Lambda Literary, Fine Arts Work Center, Tin House Summer Workshop, and Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, where he was awarded the Queer Writer Fellowship in Prose. His work appears in Nat. Brut, Poetry Online, Voicemail Poems, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere.