Sigman Byrd teaches writing at the University of Colorado in Boulder. His first book of poems, Under the Wanderer’s Star, was chosen by Gerald Stern as the winner of the 2005 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize. A new chapbook of poems, Who We Were, will be published by Finishing Line Press later this year. Sigman has also published numerous poems in a variety of journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, American Literary Review, American Poetry Review, Crazyhorse, Georgia Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Poetry, Southern Review, and Southwest Review.

He attended Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Iowa, and received his Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from the University of Utah. In addition to his experience as a university instructor and professor, he has worked as as an editor, proofreader, grant proposal writer, marketing communications specialist, advertising copywriter, and archery instructor. He lives in Boulder with his wonderful wife, Renata, his two daughters, Chelsea and Skylar, and he is currently writing another book of poems.

The pleasure a writer knows

is the pleasure of sages.

Out of non-being, being is born;

out of silence,

a writer produces a song.

            

               —Lu Chi