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Established in 2013, The Life of a Poet is a quarterly series of in-depth literary conversations. The series
offers a rare opportunity to consider a writer’s entire career and explore the major events that have shaped
their work. Readings from that work are interspersed throughout the conversation. Originally moderated
by Washington Post book critic Ron Charles, the series is now helmed by noted poet and editor Kyle
Dargan. Over the years featured poets have included Terrance Hayes, Elizabeth Alexander, Ada Limon,
Marilyn Chin, Adrian Matejka, and Carl Phillips among many others.

Sandra Beasley is the author of four poetry collections—Made to Explode, which won the Housatonic
Book Award in poetry. U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón writes that Made to Explode is “a rare and vibrant
exploration of whiteness and complicity when it comes to America’s history and traditions, it is a
courageous interrogation of self, culture, and how we are made. Both unflinching and tender, Beasley’s
smart and radiant poems glow with a historian’s exactitude and a poet’s lyrical heart." Her other works are Count the Waves; I Was the Jukebox, which won the Barnard Women Poets Prize; and Theories of Falling, which won the New Issues Poetry Prize—as well as Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an
Allergic Life, a disability memoir and cultural history of food allergies. She served as the editor for
Vinegar and Char: Verse from the Southern Foodways Alliance. Honors for her work include the 2019
Munster Literature Centre’s John Montague International Poetry Fellowship, a 2015 NEA fellowship, and
six DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities fellowships. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Listen to Sandra read from her work here:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/podcasts/75714/let-me-count-the-waves

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/podcasts/75740/the-piano-speaks

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/podcasts/75750/unit-of-measure

Kyle Dargan is the author of the poetry collection Anagnorisis (TriQuarterly/Northwestern UP,
2018), which was awarded the 2019 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and longlisted for the 2019Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His four previous collections, Honest Engine (2015), Logorrhea
Dementia (2010), Bouquet of Hungers (2007) and The Listening (2003)–were all published by the University of Georgia Press. For his work, he has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His books have also been finalistsfor the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Eric Hoffer Awards Grand Prize.

Dargan has partnered with the President’s Committee on the Arts
and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and Library of Congress. He’s worked with and supports a number of youth writing organizations, such as  826DC, Writopia Lab, Young Writers Workshop and the Dodge Poetry  high schools
program.

He is currently an Associate Professor of literature and Asst. Director of creative writing at American University as well as the founder and editor of POST NO ILLS magazine. He also works as a Managing Editor for Janelle Monae’s creative company, Wondaland. Originally from Newark, New Jersey, Dargan is a graduate of Saint Benedict’s Prep,
The University of Virginia and Indiana University. Books will be available for sale by East City Bookshop. A booksigning will follow the conversation.

(Beasley photo credit: Andrew Lightman)