poet. writer. guide.

Sam Taylor is the author of three books of poems, Body of the World, Nude Descending an Empire, and The Book of Fools. His poems have appeared in such journals as The New Republic, AGNI, Orion Magazine, Poetry Daily, and The Kenyon Review. A native of Miami, he has been a wilderness caretaker in the mountains of northern New Mexico and traveled around the world with the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship. He currently tends a wild garden in Kansas, where he is a Professor in the MFA Program at Wichita State.

Wilderness
​​Caretaker

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​​This is Vallecitos,"the little valley" 
in the San Juan Mountains of northern New Mexico,
where I served as the Winter Caretaker
and summer ranch hand for three years.
During the long winter, the refuge was snowed-in
​and deserted, without phone, electricity or internet,
I often didn't see anyone for weeks.





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Ecopoetics

As someone who has lived in wilderness solitude 
and also written poetry of ecological commitment,
both traditional and experimental,
I can bring a unique voice to discussions of ecopoetics.

Global Citizen

As the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholar in 2015, I traveled around the world, ​visiting eighteen countries on four continents. From "Body of the World" to "Nude Descending an Empire," my work always had a global perspective, engaged with issues of social justice and our interconnected place in a political world, but the scholarship anchored that outlook in the experience of the world's scale. In the years since—until COVID—I continued to travel and have now visited 26 countries.

Into the Mystic

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For better of worse, as the child of a mystic, my work often explores mystical themes and spiritual vision. This was the primary focus of Body of the World, my first book. Nude Descending an Empire and The Book of Fools have engaged more with political, historical, ecological, and personal themes, but the mystical continues to thread through all my work.

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A poet of love and the erotic










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Readings | Workshops | Coaching

Contact

email

sam.b.taylor [at] gmail.com
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social

@samtaylorpoet