Benjamin Aleshire spent many years traveling the world as a poet-for-hire, composing poems for strangers on a manual typewriter. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Times of London, Iowa Review, Boston Review, Southern Review, Lit Hub, and the Poetry Foundation's Harriet blog. Ben has received a James Merrill fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center, a Bread Loaf waiter-scholarship, and a Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council. His debut manuscript POEMS FOR BYSTANDERS was a finalist for the 2021 Kathryn Morton Prize from Sarabande and the 2020 Alice James Award. Currently, Ben is a Goldwater fellow at NYU, and serves as a contributing editor for Green Mountains Review. Photo by Clare Welsh