Keegan Lester is an American poet born in

Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, United States. The city was originally called Pacific City, but it was changed in 1903 to be named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 as of ...

. He earned his BA from

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Ins ...

and his MFA in poetry from the

Columbia University School of the Arts The Columbia University School of the Arts (also known as School of the Arts or SoA) is the fine arts graduate school of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, New York (state), New York. It offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, ...

Career

Lester's collection of poetry ''This shouldn’t be Beautiful but it was & it was all I had, so I drew it'' won the 15th annual Slope Editions Book Prize judged by

Mary Ruefle Mary Ruefle (born 1952) is an American poet, essayist, and professor. She has published many collections of poetry, the most recent of which, ''Dunce'' (Wave Books, 2019), was longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry and a finalist for th ...

and was published Feb 8th, 2017 through Slope Editions. He is the co-founder and poetry editor for the journal Souvenir Lit. Lester has taught creative writing, both poetry and non-fiction, through multiple writing workshops in Morgantown, West Virginia, as well as the West Virginia Young Writers' Holiday and mentors for the Adroit Journal Summer High School Mentorship Program. At West Virginia University he was a writing center tutor for three years and a tutor for the WVU Men's Soccer & Woman's Basketball teams. During graduate school he co-founded the Brooklyn reading series MetroRhythm, which has included readers Mark Strand, Meghan O’Rourke, Dorothea Lasky, Mark Bibbins, among others, and has collaborated with various organizations, including Argos Books and Ugly Duckling Presse. Metro Rhythm participated In 2011 and 2012 with Brooklyn's POPSICKLE Festival, as well as the New York City Poetry Festival. Lester's work appears or is forthcoming from:

The Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

, CutBank, The Journal,

The Adroit Journal ''The Adroit Journal'' is an American literary magazine founded in November 2010. Published five times per year by founding editor Peter LaBerge, ''The Adroit Journal'' is currently based in Philadelphia. The journal was produced with the suppor ...

, Sixth Finch, BOAAT, and The Atlas Review among others and has been featured on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

, Coldfront and the New School writing blog.

Summer tours

Beginning in 2015 he's toured a week each summer in

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, as a member of the Travelin’ Appalachians Revue, billed as a "multi-disciplinary celebration of Appalachian music and creative writing." The Travelin’ Appalachians Revue is meant to explore and challenge the complex and competing narratives about West Virginia with lived experience and compassion for their community to highlight the art, music and writing of that state" the brainchild of Howard Parsons and Tyler Grady. Others participating on the tour have included been David F. Bello of the band

The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die is an American rock music, rock band formed in Willimantic, Connecticut, in 2009. Following the release of several EPs and Split album, splits featuring original lead singer Thomas D ...

, John R. Miller, and writers

Scott Mcclanahan Scott McClanahan is an American writer, economist, explorer, and martial artist. He lives in Beckley, West Virginia and is the author of eight books. His most recent book, ''The Sarah Book'', was featured in Rolling Stone, Village Voice, and Pla ...

, Juliet Escoria, Marie Manilla, as well as West Virginia broadcasting producer of Inside Appalachia, Roxy Todd and activist and writer Crystal Good.

Book tour

In early 2017, in support of his book, he toured 23 dates across the northeast starting in

Provincetown Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Pr ...

, heading as far north as

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

then turning south. Lester was accompanied by fiction writer Sam Farahmand and poet Isabelle Shepherd, and read with many writers along the way including: Edaurdo Corral, Tina Cane, Paige Lewis,

Kaveh Akbar Kaveh Akbar (b. 15 January 1989; Persian language, Persian: کاوه اکبر) is an Iranian American poet, novelist, and editor. He is the author of the poetry collections ''Calling a Wolf a Wolf'' and ''Pilgrim Bell'' and of the novel ''Martyr ...

, Ching-In Chen, Earl Braggs, George Conley, Sybil Baker, Molly Brodak, Nicole Steinberg,

Raquel Salas Rivera Roque Raquel Salas Rivera (born 1985) is a bilingual Puerto Rican poet who writes in Spanish and English, focusing on the experience of being a migrant to the United States, the colonial status of Puerto Rico, and of identifying as a queer Puert ...

, Laura Kochman, Joe Halestead, Artress Bethany White, Prairie M. Faul, jo gehringer and

Sarah Gerard Sarah Gerard is an American writer of fiction and nonfiction. She worked for Bomb Magazine. She is the author of three books. The first, a novel, ''Binary Star'', was published in 2015 by Two Dollar Radio. It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Ti ...

among others.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Keegan Columbia University School of the Arts alumni West Virginia University alumni 21st-century American poets American male poets Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American male writers