Winner of the 2011 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry and the Academy of American Poets Prize, Sarah McKinstry-Brown studied poetry at the University of New Mexico and the University of Sheffield, England. She earned her MFA in Poetry from the University of Nebraska, and her first full-length collection of poetry, Cradling Monsoons, won the 2010 Blue Light Book Award.
Sarah’s poetry has been published in everything from West Virginia’s standardized tests to literary journals such as Chicago Quarterly Review. It also appears in several slam poetry anthologies, including The Spoken Word Revolution Redux, which includes poems from Poet Laureates Billy Collins and Ted Kooser. Other publication highlights include Nebraska Presence, An Anthology of Nebraska Writers; Plainsongs; The Sow’s Ear; The Cimarron Review; and at poetryspeaks.com alongside the works of Emily Dickinson and Lord Byron.
A native of Albuquerque, NM, McKinstry-Brown has taught performing and writing workshops in libraries, schools, and universities throughout the United States. She currently lives in Omaha, NE with her poet husband Matt Mason and their two beautiful, feisty daughters.
publications
Poetry featured on Albuquerque’s Metro buses as part of Magnifico’s Tumblewords Project; 2000.
Spoken word CD, Girl Bones, 2000.
Freedom to Speak, 2002.
The Great American Road Show, 2002.
Spoken Word CD, My Dress Hangs Here, 2002.
From the Page to the Stage and Back Again, 2003.
West Virginia Standardized Test for Tenth Graders, 2003.
Harwood Review, 2004.
Slamma Lamma Ding Dong, an Anthology of Nebraska’s Slam Poets, 2005.
The Omaha World Herald, 2005.
“Benchmarks,” an Omaha public art project, 2005.
Spoken word CD, Transplant, 2005.
The Spoken Word Revolution Redux, 2007.
SCW Women Artists Date book and Calendar, 2007.
Indifeed, 2008.
A Bigger Boat: The Unlikely Success of Albuquerque’s Poetry Slam Scene, 2008.
Nebraska Presence, An Anthology of Nebraska Writer’s, 2008.
Sow’s Ear Review, 2009.
Plainsongs, 2009.
Chicago Quarterly Review, 2009.
The Cimarron Review, 2009.
Poetryspeaks.com; February, 2010.
Critical Paper: What Moves Us, 2010. Advisor: Jim Peterson.
Creative Thesis: Cradling Monsoons, 2010. Advisor: William Trowbridge.