Born in Nashville, poet Sarah C. Harwell earned a BA at the University of Toronto and an MLS and MFA at Syracuse University. She is the author of the collection Sit Down Traveler (2012) and, with Courtney Queeney and Farah Marklevits, Three New Poets (2006). In her poems, Harwell explores loss, intimacy, and mortality, often through the joys and dramas of motherhood and domestic rituals. In an interview with Sapling, Harwell discussed finding the balance between writing, work, and family, stating, “Writing gets done in the cracks and crevices, stealing time from one obligation to give to another. […] Life is messy, which is good, for otherwise there would be no need of poems.”
 
Harwell’s honors include the Joyce Carol Oates Prize in Poetry and the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award. She teaches at Syracuse University and lives in Syracuse, New York.