Chet'la Sebree is the author of Field Study (FSG Originals, June 2021), winner of the 2020 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. She is also the author of Mistress, selected by Cathy Park Hong as the winner of the 2018 New Issues Poetry Prize and nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work-Poetry (2020). Her next collection of poetry, Blue Opening, is forthcoming from Tin House in 2025.

She is currently working on her debut essay collection about her relationship to home, heritage, and belonging through domestic and international travel; it’s forthcoming from The Dial Press in early 2026.

She is an assistant professor of English at George Washington University and teaching in Randolph College’s Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program.

Photo courtesy of Shannon Woodloe.