Sally Van Doren

Poet and artist Sally Van Doren was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She is the author of the poetry collections Promise (LSU Press, 2017), Possessive (LSU Press, 2012), and Sex at Noon Taxes (LSU Press, 2008), winner of the Walt Whitman Award. About her work, August Kleinzahler has said, “There are no dead moments, no fill: even the conjunctions, prepositions and assorted connectives carry a charge. The language is alive. The movement of language is alive.” Sabne Raznik wrote in a review, “This is a poetry of deep emotional substance even in the midst of play.”

Van Doren has taught at the 92nd Street Y in New York, Washington University, and the St. Louis Public Schools. She curates the Sunday Workshop Series for the St. Louis Poetry Center, and she posts daily excerpts from her ongoing project, The Sense Series, on Instagram. She divides her time between Connecticut and New York.