Shara Lessley
@sharalessley.bsky.social
Poet, essayist, lover of insects & trees | 📚: The Explosive Expert's Wife, Two-Headed Nightingale, The Poem's Country: Place & Poetic Practice (co-edited w/Bruce Snider) | CNF Ed: West Branch | Consulting Ed: Acre Books | Mentor / 🐾 & human mama | 🏳️🌈
It's publication day for my bff Bruce Snider! Happy to see his fourth #poetry collection, BLOOD HARMONY, get this write up at @lithub.com.web.brid.gy courtesy of @poetmorgan.bsky.social! lithub.com/ancient-algo... ❤️📚
Ancient Algorithms, Hauntings, and Sweet Repetitions: This November in Poetry
In the month’s poetry round-up, repetition reigns as poets push at its boundaries through acts of translation and transformation. Katrine Øgaard Jensen throws a translation party full of corruptive…
lithub.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:40 PM
It's publication day for my bff Bruce Snider! Happy to see his fourth #poetry collection, BLOOD HARMONY, get this write up at @lithub.com.web.brid.gy courtesy of @poetmorgan.bsky.social! lithub.com/ancient-algo... ❤️📚
Reposted by Shara Lessley
When the weather gets cooler I start putting the hats I crochet into our Little Free Library with a note letting people know they’re free to anyone with a cold head.
October 24, 2025 at 5:52 PM
When the weather gets cooler I start putting the hats I crochet into our Little Free Library with a note letting people know they’re free to anyone with a cold head.
This Sunday! Perfect event to usher in the Keatsian season of mists...and a happy respite from the daily shite happening, well, you know. Hope you can join us in poetry. 💙
Next weekend, please join us in celebration of #StanleyPlumly. A terrific lineup of writers will be reading from Stan's recently published COLLECTED #POEMS. Virtual event. Sept 28. 3:00 to 4:30. Link to register with @hvwriterscenter.bsky.social. 💙
Readings | HVWC share.google/ZR3g1pq731kN...
Readings | HVWC share.google/ZR3g1pq731kN...
September 26, 2025 at 5:31 PM
This Sunday! Perfect event to usher in the Keatsian season of mists...and a happy respite from the daily shite happening, well, you know. Hope you can join us in poetry. 💙
Next weekend, please join us in celebration of #StanleyPlumly. A terrific lineup of writers will be reading from Stan's recently published COLLECTED #POEMS. Virtual event. Sept 28. 3:00 to 4:30. Link to register with @hvwriterscenter.bsky.social. 💙
Readings | HVWC share.google/ZR3g1pq731kN...
Readings | HVWC share.google/ZR3g1pq731kN...
September 20, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Next weekend, please join us in celebration of #StanleyPlumly. A terrific lineup of writers will be reading from Stan's recently published COLLECTED #POEMS. Virtual event. Sept 28. 3:00 to 4:30. Link to register with @hvwriterscenter.bsky.social. 💙
Readings | HVWC share.google/ZR3g1pq731kN...
Readings | HVWC share.google/ZR3g1pq731kN...
Reposted by Shara Lessley
Today, the children at Annunciation Catholic School were shot while praying. Two were killed in the pews.
Thoughts and prayers are NOT enough. We need immediate and comprehensive gun safety laws. That’s what saves lives.
Thoughts and prayers are NOT enough. We need immediate and comprehensive gun safety laws. That’s what saves lives.
August 27, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Today, the children at Annunciation Catholic School were shot while praying. Two were killed in the pews.
Thoughts and prayers are NOT enough. We need immediate and comprehensive gun safety laws. That’s what saves lives.
Thoughts and prayers are NOT enough. We need immediate and comprehensive gun safety laws. That’s what saves lives.
In this crazy life, we never know who's pulling for us! Be happy, Natalie! (delighted by the lift this #poem by Aaron Smith gave me this morning) 💜
poets.org/poem/im-dati...
poets.org/poem/im-dati...
I’m Dating a Man Who’s Married
to a man who’s dating a man who’s
poets.org
August 19, 2025 at 12:22 PM
In this crazy life, we never know who's pulling for us! Be happy, Natalie! (delighted by the lift this #poem by Aaron Smith gave me this morning) 💜
poets.org/poem/im-dati...
poets.org/poem/im-dati...
Drafting about Chagall fleeing N*zi France for NY, his beloved wife suddenly dying, a year of mourning (no art) until Balanchine commissions him to design costumes / sets for the reimagined Firebird ballet (Stravinsky) with genius Maria Tallchief in titular role. The world sucks, but there's that.
August 8, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Drafting about Chagall fleeing N*zi France for NY, his beloved wife suddenly dying, a year of mourning (no art) until Balanchine commissions him to design costumes / sets for the reimagined Firebird ballet (Stravinsky) with genius Maria Tallchief in titular role. The world sucks, but there's that.
@westbranchmagazine.bsky.social's Creative Nonfiction Editor here! Would love to see your #essays this season. If I've encouraged you in the past, please resubmit! Formal innovation, personal #essays, eco-focused, lgbtq+ -- I'm looking for your best and most surprising work! No fees. We pay. #cnf
happy august!! we are once again open for submissions!! send us your beloveds!!!
August 2, 2025 at 6:49 PM
@westbranchmagazine.bsky.social's Creative Nonfiction Editor here! Would love to see your #essays this season. If I've encouraged you in the past, please resubmit! Formal innovation, personal #essays, eco-focused, lgbtq+ -- I'm looking for your best and most surprising work! No fees. We pay. #cnf
Starred, indeed. Looking forward to this. 💙
★ This definitive retrospective gathers the work of an allusive, musical, and stylish writer and introduces nine new poems to his oeuvre. Elegant, stately, and immersed in literary history, this is a grand summation of the poet’s life.
Collected Poems of Stanley Plumly by Stanley Plumly
This definitive retrospective gathers the work of an allusive, musical, and stylish writer and introduces nine new poems to his ...
buff.ly
July 30, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Starred, indeed. Looking forward to this. 💙
“You’ve got no rights here. You’re a migo, brother.” Afterward, agents can be heard bragging and making light of the arrests, calling the stun gun use “funny” and quipping: “You can smell that … $30,000 bonus.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest
Video from Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio, 18, puts fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used to reach the Trump administration’s ambitious enforcement targets
www.theguardian.com
July 25, 2025 at 9:51 PM
“You’ve got no rights here. You’re a migo, brother.” Afterward, agents can be heard bragging and making light of the arrests, calling the stun gun use “funny” and quipping: “You can smell that … $30,000 bonus.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Shara Lessley
The evil that men do lives after them
July 3, 2025 at 6:42 PM
The evil that men do lives after them
#BruceSnider isn't here, but the link to preorder his new book of #poems is! BLOOD HARMONY comes out Nov, 2025. Brotherhood, addiction, queerness, and country music. So many forms. It's a dazzler! #booksky @uwiscpress.bsky.social 🏳️🌈 share.google/STwXZGb0DQRh...
Blood Harmony
share.google
July 3, 2025 at 3:36 PM
#BruceSnider isn't here, but the link to preorder his new book of #poems is! BLOOD HARMONY comes out Nov, 2025. Brotherhood, addiction, queerness, and country music. So many forms. It's a dazzler! #booksky @uwiscpress.bsky.social 🏳️🌈 share.google/STwXZGb0DQRh...
I am so overwhelmed by the constant news coming out of this admin. This, itself, isn't news or new. I am just, good god,...
June 3, 2025 at 9:31 PM
I am so overwhelmed by the constant news coming out of this admin. This, itself, isn't news or new. I am just, good god,...
I'm still going strong and love this message from Susan Choi. 4496 words and counting. A tremendous accomplishment for the sloth. 🦥 #1000wordsofsummer
Today's #1000wordsofsummer letter comes to us from National Book Award winner Susan Choi, who has a new novel called Flashlight out TODAY 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com/p/day-4-1000...
Day 4 #1000wordsofsummer 2025
Because you are an observer.
1000wordsofsummer.substack.com
June 3, 2025 at 4:03 PM
I'm still going strong and love this message from Susan Choi. 4496 words and counting. A tremendous accomplishment for the sloth. 🦥 #1000wordsofsummer
If you write more than #1000wordsofsummer the first two days and then subtract 500+ revising on the third, but then add 600 more later that afternoon, is it a deficit? This writer sloth needs a nap. 🦥
June 2, 2025 at 6:19 PM
If you write more than #1000wordsofsummer the first two days and then subtract 500+ revising on the third, but then add 600 more later that afternoon, is it a deficit? This writer sloth needs a nap. 🦥
Same, "after the dance" lady, same.
'After the Dance.' (1899) Ramon Casas began studying under John Singer Sargent's mentor Singer Carolus Duran when he was just 16. A year after painting this work, he held a solo show in Barcelona which established him as the leading Catalan portrait painter of his day.
June 1, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Same, "after the dance" lady, same.
The sloth is off! Today's haul: 1006 words + a morning freewrite. Friends, don't expect me to keep up this pace. #1000wordsofsummer 🦥
May 31, 2025 at 9:34 PM
The sloth is off! Today's haul: 1006 words + a morning freewrite. Friends, don't expect me to keep up this pace. #1000wordsofsummer 🦥
Third collection of poems, DOUBLETAKE, officially has an order and TOC. I've been sitting on this manuscript forever. Guess it's past time.
May 30, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Third collection of poems, DOUBLETAKE, officially has an order and TOC. I've been sitting on this manuscript forever. Guess it's past time.
I'm in. Because somebody needs to rep the writer-sloths. 🦥
#1000wordsofsummer starts in FIVE days. This Saturday, May 31! Come write 1000 words a day for 2 weeks straight with 50k+ other people. It’s fun and nerdy and free. Have you started prepping for it yet? 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com/p/how-to-pre...
How to Prep for #1000wordsofsummer
Time to get ready, people.
1000wordsofsummer.substack.com
May 27, 2025 at 7:14 PM
I'm in. Because somebody needs to rep the writer-sloths. 🦥
Reposted by Shara Lessley
For years, I, too, wept,
in secret,
and so did not weep at all.
—Jennifer Chang, from "The Death of Socrates"
in secret,
and so did not weep at all.
—Jennifer Chang, from "The Death of Socrates"
May 23, 2025 at 12:18 AM
For years, I, too, wept,
in secret,
and so did not weep at all.
—Jennifer Chang, from "The Death of Socrates"
in secret,
and so did not weep at all.
—Jennifer Chang, from "The Death of Socrates"
So it begins. Today's draft: an essay about rivers. Kaweah (California), Isis (England), Jordan (al Maghtas). Grief and doubt, falling away and returning. Wish me luck.
May 22, 2025 at 1:29 PM
So it begins. Today's draft: an essay about rivers. Kaweah (California), Isis (England), Jordan (al Maghtas). Grief and doubt, falling away and returning. Wish me luck.
I'm no longer letting fear, shame, or power holders police my writing. Thanks @lisaampleman.bsky.social at @cincinnatireview.bsky.social for the invitation to say something about creative #nonfiction & disclosure. Craft #essay includes models & reading list. 💜
tinyurl.com/5f5dhs7x
tinyurl.com/5f5dhs7x
"Let Me Whisper in Your Ear: A Craft Essay" by Shara Lessley
Shara Lessley on the craft of writing about family secrets in literary nonfiction
www.cincinnatireview.com
May 14, 2025 at 7:26 PM
I'm no longer letting fear, shame, or power holders police my writing. Thanks @lisaampleman.bsky.social at @cincinnatireview.bsky.social for the invitation to say something about creative #nonfiction & disclosure. Craft #essay includes models & reading list. 💜
tinyurl.com/5f5dhs7x
tinyurl.com/5f5dhs7x
Reposted by Shara Lessley
Your periodic reminder that one way to think about privilege is: who's allowed to make mistakes?
April 19, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Your periodic reminder that one way to think about privilege is: who's allowed to make mistakes?
Reposted by Shara Lessley
If yr teaching meter, here are some lines from "Pink Pony Club" that are in iambs:
"I'm having wicked dreams of leaving Tennessee."
"I can't ignore the crazy visions of me in LA."
My students scanned their sonnet lines by singing them to the tune of these @chappellroanbr.bsky.social lines. Dope.
"I'm having wicked dreams of leaving Tennessee."
"I can't ignore the crazy visions of me in LA."
My students scanned their sonnet lines by singing them to the tune of these @chappellroanbr.bsky.social lines. Dope.
a woman is riding on the back of a pink horse
ALT: a woman is riding on the back of a pink horse
media.tenor.com
April 2, 2025 at 8:27 PM
If yr teaching meter, here are some lines from "Pink Pony Club" that are in iambs:
"I'm having wicked dreams of leaving Tennessee."
"I can't ignore the crazy visions of me in LA."
My students scanned their sonnet lines by singing them to the tune of these @chappellroanbr.bsky.social lines. Dope.
"I'm having wicked dreams of leaving Tennessee."
"I can't ignore the crazy visions of me in LA."
My students scanned their sonnet lines by singing them to the tune of these @chappellroanbr.bsky.social lines. Dope.