Shara Lessley

Shara Lessley is an American poet and essayist.

Early life Lessley was born in Visalia, California in 1975. She attended the University of California, Irvine. An ArtsBridge Scholar, she earned undergraduate degrees in English and Dance. Shara received an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Maryland's creative writing program.

Career Lessley is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, The Explosive Expert's Wife (University of Wisconsin Press), a Rumpus Poetry Book selection, and Two-Headed Nightingale (New Issues Poetry & Prose). With the poet Bruce Snider, Lessley co-edited The Poem's Country: Place & Poetic Practice (Pleiades Press), an anthology of essays.

Lessley's writing has been published widely, appearing in newspapers and magazines such as The San Francisco Chronicle, Poetry Daily , The Kenyon Review, Missouri Review, and 32 Poems, as well as in numerous anthologies. Her poems have earned awards including Southern Indiana Review ) (2008) North Carolina Arts Council: Artist Fellowship (2010) Mary Wood Fellowship: Washington College, Rose O'Neill Literary House (2014) National Endowment for the Arts: Individual Fellowship in Poetry (2015)

Books

The Explosive Expert's Wife (University of Wisconsin Press, 2018) The Poem's Country: Place & Poetic Practice (Pleiades Press, 2018) co-editor Two-Headed Nightingale (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2012)