Sydney Lea

Sydney Lea (born December 22, 1942) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, editor, and professor. He was the founding editor of the New England Review and was the Poet Laureate of Vermont from 2011 to 2015. Lea's writings focus the outdoors, woods, and rural life New England and "the mysteries and teachings of the natural world."

Lea attended Yale University, graduating with a B.A. in 1964. While there, he was a member of the social and literary fraternity, St. Anthony Hall. He then taught at Middlebury College from 1976 to 1989 and at Yale University in 1979.

In 1987, Lea received a Guggenheim Fellowship for poetry. Lea described as "a high point of my term as poet laureate. It was so refreshing and so different, a great shot in the arm." It premiered in 2014 by Hallman's long-term collaborator, Abigail Haynes-Lennox and the 802 Quartet at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Lea's thirteenth collection of poetry, Here, was published by Four Way Books in 2019. In a review of Here, Publishers Weekly writes, "Lea weaves a graceful tapestry of personal history while expressing his trademark wonder at the natural world in his quietly powerful 13th collection. His memories are not grand in scale; he recalls watching his daughter spill a glass of milk on a train, teaching his son to ride a bike, and schoolboy shenanigans such as a “slew of idiot tricks” pulled on a Latin instructor—yet these scenes become significant through Lea's telling." This award "is reserved for artists both distinguished in their field, and who have had a profound impact on the state of Vermont." 2011 Poet Laureate of Vermont

He plays the blues harmonica.