Shara Lessley, a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, is the author of Two-Headed Nightingale (New Issues, 2012). Her awards include the Mary Wood Fellowship from Washington College, the Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellowship from the University of Wisconsin, and Colgate University’s Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship, among others. A recent resident of the Middle East, Shara was awarded a 2015 Poetry Fellowship from the NEA and is currently editing an anthology of essays on poetry and place with the poet Bruce Snider.
Poetry
Jan/Feb 2017
Letter to Bruce in Paradise, Indiana
Swefieh, Amman A worker came to measure for curtainstoday. It was the first time since moving here I’ve been alone with a local man. Asked for his opinion,he stared […]
Poetry
Jan/Feb 2017
Letter to Rania in Amman
Ashburn, Virginia Today, I took the kids by stroller past the monochromatic buildings of brick and vinyl-slick houses on cul-de-sacs, each mirroring the last. How is it a year— […]
Poetry
Winter 2007
The Countervoice
Yourself, the rule. Yourself the maker of its exception. Snow fills the nest's ladle. Whiteness. Talons clasped, the cardinal sits on the ice- clipped bough, motionless. Everything bleached to nothing. […]