Sydney Lea
Sydney Lea is the author of sixteen poetry collections, including What Shines (Four Way Books, 2023) and Pursuit of the Wound (University of Illinois Press, 2000), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; two novels, most recently Now Look (Down East Books, 2024); seven volumes of personal essays, most recently Such Dancing as We Can (The Humble Essayist Press, 2024); and a hybrid mock-epic for kids, with former Vermont Cartoonist Laureate James Kochalka. His new and selected poems, Dancing in the Dark, is due out from Four Way in 2027. Lea founded New England Review, served as Vermont Poet Laureate from 2011 to 2015, and has received his state’s highest artistic distinction, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. (updated 4/2026)
AGNI has published the following work:
Light and Chapel
Poetry by Sydney Lea
Your Flight
Poetry by Sydney Lea
Reckoning
Poetry by Sydney Lea
On Bibliodiversity
Blog post by Sydney Lea
To Purify the Language of the Tribe
Blog post by Sydney Lea
At 74, I Whistle
Blog post by Sydney Lea
Here at Summer’s End
Poetry by Sydney Lea
Small Grenades: Writing and Politics
Blog post by Sydney Lea
Some Postures to the Rock
Poetry by Sydney Lea
How to Sort It
Poetry by Sydney Lea
When the Light Fails
Poetry by Sydney Lea
Milton’s Satan
Poetry by Sydney Lea
Winter Poet
Poetry by Sydney Lea
Slow Burn
Poetry by Sydney Lea