Sasha West

For more than 14 years, Sasha West has taught professional and creative writing at institutions like Rice University, the University of Houston Honors College, Towson University, and Johns Hopkins University. In addition to her teaching, Dr. West has worked at the Texas Legislative Council during session and served as an executive director and program manager at not-for-profit organizations in the arts. Under her tenure as editor-in-chief of Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and the Arts, the journal received Pushcart Prizes, had multiple pieces appear in the Best American series, and was mentioned by Sven Birkerts in the Boston Globe. She draws on her experience to help her students develop strong, flexible writing skills.

Currently, Dr. West directs the Writing Center at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. In her additional role as Lecturer, she teaches graduate students in global policy studies how to write effective policy documents.  

Sasha West holds an MA from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars and a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston, where she was a Cambor and Ehrhardt Fellow. Her work has been published in multiple venues, including The Southern Review, Ninth Letter, Third Coast, American Poet, Chelsea, and Born. Her first book, Failure and I Bury the Body (Harper Perennial), won the 2012 National Poetry Series and the 2013 Texas Institute of Letters Bob Bush Award. She has also received Rice University’s Parks Fellowship, Inprint’s Verlaine Prize, multiple Pushcart nominations, the Houston Arts Alliance Established Artist Grant, and the Untermeyer Scholarship to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.