(orginal collage,“Skateboarding with
William Blake I” by S. Yarberry)
CV
for questions & queries
email Smith at syarberry at u.northwestern.edu
email Smith at syarberry at u.northwestern.edu
EDUCATION
Northwestern University, 2020-
Ph.D., English, Spring 2026 (expected)
“Trans Impossibilities and the 1790s: The Imaginative Bodies of William Blake”
Dissertation Committee: Tristram Wolff (chair), Susannah Young-ah Gottlieb, Kate
Singer (Mount Holyoke College), Harris Feinsod (Johns Hopkins University)
Washington University in St. Louis, 2017-2019
M.F.A, Creative Writing (Poetry)
A Boy in the City: Poems
Thesis Committee: Carl Phillips, Mary Jo Bang, Aditi Machado
Lewis & Clark College, 2012-2016
B.A., English
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Poetry & Poetics; 18th-Century Literature; British Romanticism; Trans and Queer Studies
SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Rage, Embodiment, and Withdrawal: Trans Impossibilities in William Blake’s The [First]
Book of Urizen,” Studies in Romanticism, vol. 63, no. 4, Winter 2025, 557-568 (online)
“Writing Robert Blake,” European Romantic Review, vol. 36, no. 2, Spring 2025, 341-358
Public Scholarship & Interviews
“T.R. Brady interviewed by S. Yarberry,” Studies in Romanticism, vol. 63, no. 4, Winter 2025, 569-578
The Brooklyn Rail, “Desire, Joy, and Sadness in Spinoza’s P18,” 2023 (online)
Bent into Myth A Conversation with jayy dodd-The Adroit Journal
Guest Post/Poet: S. Yarberry Interviews Kiki Petrosino-Hell’s Printing Press (The Blog of
the Blake Archive and Blake Quarterly), 2019
Guest Post/Poet: S. Yarberry Interviews S. Brook Corfman-Hell’s Printing Press (The Blog
of the Blake Archive and Blake Quarterly), 2019
Guest post/poet: S. Yarberry Interviews Aditi Machado- Hell’s Printing Press (The Blog of
the Blake Archive and Blake Quarterly), 2019
Standardizing the Vernacular: Jos Charles Interviewed by S. Yarberry- BOMB Magazine,
2018
POETRY PUBLICATIONS
Books
Urgent, Stars (Deep Vellum, forthcoming, Fall/Winter 2027)
The Robert Poems (Deep Vellum, forthcoming, Fall/Winter 2026)
A Boy in the City (Deep Vellum, 2022)
Winner of the 2022 Foreword INDIES award for Poetry; Reviews in Pleiades, Harriet Books, ANMLY,
Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism, Third Coast Review
Magazines & Journals
Guernica, The Robert Poems (excerpt), 2024 (online)
Dialogist, “Robert Blake’s Dream,” 2023 (online)
Gulf Coast, “Meeting in Space (Robert’s Wet Dream)” & “Notes from Robert’s Journal,” 2023, print
Sequestrum, "My Own Heart," "An Apocalyptic Wanting, Wanting," and "Listen:,” 2023 (online)
Another Chicago Magazine, “No Worst (Robert’s Wet Dream),” 2023 (online)
Poetry Society, “Stage Directions,” 2022 (online)
Spectrum, “Tradition” & “Keyhole. Double. Batwing. Donut.” 2022, print
Hot Pink Mag, “A Romantic Sonnet,” “New York,” & Television Pilot,” 2022 (online)
Annulet: A Journal of Poetics, “Some Thoughts on the Monostich,” 2022 (essay, online)
AGNI, “Down Below,” 2021, print
Michigan Quarterly Review, The Robert Poems (excerpt), 2021 (online)
Ruminate, “A Kind of Lightning,” 2021 (online, best of the net nomination)
Pinwheel, “CHAPTER,” 2021 (online)
Redivider, “Island of Calypso” (previously, “Enter the Ghost”), 2020 (best of the net nomination)
The Afternoon Visitor, “Icarus” & “Terminal Theatre,” 2020, (online)
pulpmouth, “The History,” 2020, (online)
Sip Cup, “Self-Portrait” (previously, “Self-Portrait in Orthopedic Black Tie”), 2020, (online)
The Boiler, “Imagine,” “Requiem Circuit,” & “Boyhood,” 2020, (online, best of the net nomination)
echoverse, “The Sea Night Lilacs,” 2020, (online)
Tin House, “This place is called Beulah,” 2019, (online)
The Washington Post: The Lily Magazine, “Stepping Out,” 2019
jubilat (V. 34), “A cloak you cannot take off.,” 2019, print
Berkeley Poetry Review (V. 49), “Graphic,” “Anteroom,” & “Letter,” 2019, print
Best Buds! Collective, “The Cave,” 2019 (online)
Indiana Review (V. 41.1), “Sphinx,” 2019, print
Nat Brut, “You Having Been,” 2019, (online)
Sixth Finch, “Trans is Latin for across.,” 2019, (online)
DREGINALD, “I despair! I disengage.,” “Emanation Song,” & “Gesture Towards Immortality,” 2019, (online)
Burnside Review, “Automania,” 2019, print
Cape Cod Poetry Review, “Spiral House,” 2019, print
Queer Voices: Prose, Poetry, and Pride, from Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2019
Notre Dame Review, Manifesto / Prologue & “In the Night Harbor,” 2019, print
The Offing, “Intimacy Abstract” & “I kiss the fire in your hands, or City-Builders,” 2018, (online)
FIVE:2:ONE’s #thesideshow, “McDonalds 3 Times” & “Angels in Conversation, 2017
Touchstone Magazine, “She started out as a flame-painting,” 2017, print
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Northwestern University
Introduction to Creative Writing, Fall 2025 (Instructor of Record)
The Art(s) of Skateboarding: Poetry, Journalism, & Film, Winter 2024 (Instructor of Record)
Introduction to British Literature, Winter 2022 (TA)
Introduction to Poetry, Fall 2021 (TA)
The Loft Literary Center (online)
Reading & Writing the Poetic Line, Spring 2020 (six weeks)
Washington University in St. Louis
Poetry Writing I, Spring 2020, Fall and Spring 2019, Fall 2018
Community Teaching & Guest Lectures
Found Broadsides: A Poetry Workshop, (August 21st, 2025, single session), The PO Box Collective,
Chicago, IL - Instructor
The Art of Poetry & Song: Lyric Writing Workshop, (March 2025, single session), Louisville Orchestra,
Louisville, KY- Instructor
Welcome to Trans Studies, (October 8th, 2025, single session), The PO Box Collective, Chicago, IL -
Instructor
I was in a printing house in Hell: Reading & Writing with William Blake, (June 2024, single session), LMNL
Lit (online)- Instructor
18th Century Echoes: Trans Poetics Across Borders of Space & Time — A Conversation with Prof. Rachel
Galvin and S. Yarberry, (November 30th, 2023, Global 18th-Century Colloquium), Northwestern
University - Guest Lecture
Recycling & Responding to William Blake with Katana Smith, (November 7th, 2023, Blake’s Afterlives,
Prof. Tristram Wolff), Northwestern University - Guest Lecture
Prophecy & Poetry in Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven & Hell, (April 2nd, 2023, Intro to British Lit, Prof.
Christine Froula), Northwestern University - Guest Lecture
Reading & Writing Ekphrastic Poetry, (February 21st, 2023, Intro to Poetry, Prof. Aurora Masum-Javed),
Macalester College - Guest Lecture
The Prophet & The Bard: William Blake & William Shakespeare, (February 7th, 2023, Shakespeare Off the
Page, Prof. Toby Altman), Beloit College - Guest Lecture
S. Yarberry on Writing A Boy in the City, (December 15th, 2022, Intro to Poetry, Prof. Colin Criss),
Washington State University - Guest Lecture
The ‘Mind Forg’d Manacles’ of William Blake & Ottobah Cugoano: Revolution, Abolition, and Prophecy,
(January 5th, 2021, Intro to British Lit, Prof. Christine Froula), Northwestern University - Guest Lecture
Thinking Through Lyric Forms, (November 2nd, 2021, Intro to Poetry, Prof. Aditi Machado), University of
Cincinnati - Guest Lecture
On Independent Publishing, (January 5th, 2021, Literary Publishing, Prof. Meg Cass), University of Illinois
Springfield - Guest Lecture
FELLOWSHIPS & HONORS
Fletcher Jones Foundation Fellow, The Huntington Library (two months), 2025
Huntington Library Travel Grant, British Museum (London, UK) and Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria),
2025
T.S. Eliot International Summer School, The Institute of English Studies at University of London, Summer
2023
Mellon Cluster Fellow in Poetry & Poetics, Northwestern University, 2020 -
Rumi Prize in Poetry (finalist), Georgia College, Summer 2020
Teaching Fellow in Poetry, Washington University in St. Louis, 2019-2020
Norma Lowry Memorial Award for Poetry, Washington University in St. Louis, 2019
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2026 “Poetics of the Event,” New Orleans Poetry Festival, New Orleans, LA, April 16th-19th
2025 “Oothoon to Orc,” International Conference on Romanticism, Colorado College, Colorado
Springs, CO, October 16th-18th
2025 “Ecopoetics in a Time of Grief: Queer and Trans Perspectives,” Association of Writers and Writing
Programs (AWP), Los Angeles, CA, March 26th-29th
2025 “The ABCs of Creative Writing PhDs,” Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), Los
Angeles, CA, March 26th-29th
2025 “Disorientation & Dysphoria: Blake's Infernal Falls,” Modern Language Association (MLA), New
Orleans, LA., January 9th-12th
2024 Chair, “The Eccentric Eighteenth Century,” American Society of Eighteenth Century Studies
(ASECS), ON, CA, April 4th-6th, 2024
2023 “Transness, Transmutability, and Creation in William Blake’s The Book of Urizen,” American
Society of Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS), St. Louis, MO, March 8th-12th, 2023
2023 “Transness, Transmutability, and Creation in William Blake’s The Book of Urizen,” Modern
Language Association (MLA), San Francisco, CA, January 5th-8th, 2023
2023 “Enough! Or Too Much: The Political Sermons of Ottobah Cugoano & William Blake,” International
Conference of Romanticism (ICR), UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, October 20th-23rd, 2023
2022 “I don’t know what are a body and hands a mouth a sex: Trans Poetry; Trans Poetics,” Stanford-
Berkeley Graduate Conference, Stanford University & UC Berkeley (virtual), April 30th, 2022
SERVICE & PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Interdisciplinary Graduate Assistantship in the Public Humanities, Alice Kaplan Institute for the Public
Humanities, Northwestern University, 2025-2026
Coordinator, Poetry & Poetics Colloquium, Northwestern University, 2024-2025; 2022-2023
Co-Chair, Trans & Queer Caucus, American Society of Eighteenth Century Studies, 2023-2025
Founder & Coordinator, Kaplan Graduate Workshop in Trans Studies, Alice B. Kaplan Institute for the
Humanities, Northwestern University, 2024-2027 (secured three-year grant of $36,000 [$12,000 per year])
Coordinator, Trans Poetics, Affects, Histories Workshop, Northwestern University, 2023-2024 (secured
$7,000 operating budget from the Office of Institutional Diversity & Inclusions and the English
Department)
Co-Chair, Elected Graduate Student Organization (EGSO), Department of English, Northwestern
University, 2022 -2023
Co-Chair, American Cultures Colloquium, Northwestern University, 2022-2023
Representative, Graduate Policy & Placement Committee, Department of English, Northwestern
University, 2021- 2022
EDITING & PUBLISHING EXPERIENCE
Founder & Organizer, PO BOX Poetry Series - Monthly Chicago Poetry Series, The PO Box Collective, April
2022 - Current
Founder & Editor, Tyger Quarterly - Online Quarterly Poetry Journal, Spring 2022 - Current
Poetry Editor, The Spectacle - Washington University in St. Louis, Fall 2019 - Fall 2023
Revue Editor, The Spectacle - Washington University in St. Louis, Fall 2017 - Fall 2019
Poetry Coordinator, The MFA App Review - Washington University in St. Louis, Fall 2018 - Fall 2021
Intern, Milkweed Editions - Minneapolis, MN, Summer 2016; Fall 2016
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP); Modern Language Association (MLA); American
Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS); the International Trans Studies Association (ITSA)
