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About Me
Literary Highlights
Annette Sisson’s poems can be found in Birmingham Poetry Rev, Blue Mountain Rev, Christian Century, Cider Press Rev, Cloudbank, Cumberland River Rev, Five South, Glassworks Mag, Gyroscope, HeartWood Lit Mag, Inflectionist Rev, Innisfree Poetry Jrnl, MacGuffin, One, Orange Blossom Rev, Orchards Poetry Rev, Passager, Psaltery & Lyre, Quartet, Roanoke Rev, Rockvale Rev, Rust & Moth, San Pedro River Rev, Sheila-Na-Gig, Shore, Sky Island Jrnl, South Florida Poetry Jrnl, Stillwater Rev, Susurrus, SWIMM Every Day, Tupelo Press’s Milkweed Anthology, Typishly, Valparaiso Poetry Rev, West Trade Rev, Whale Road Rev, and many other journals and anthologies.
Just 2-1/2 years after her first book Small Fish in High Branches was published in May 2022 (Glass Lyre Press), Terrapin Books released her second full-length book of poetry Winter Sharp with Apples in October 2024. Her first chapbook A Casting Off appeared in June 2019 (Finishing Line Press), and she is currently finishing her second chapbook.
As of July 2024, Sisson’s poem “Deep in Milkweed” is in final contention for the annual Charles Simic Poetry Prize, and her poem “Fog” won The Porch Writers’ Collective’s 2019 poetry prize. Other poems have placed in Frontier New Voices, The Fish Anthology, Lascaux Review’s poetry prize, Naugatuck River Review’s poetry prize, Prometheus Dreaming’s “Prometheus Unbound” contest, and other competitions. Her poems have also received multiple nominations for The Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She was named a BOAAT Writing Fellow (2020) and a Mark Strand Scholar for the Sewanee Writers’ Conference (2021).
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Life Highlights
Annette Sisson lives in Nashville, TN, with her partner, Jimmy Davis, and their two dogs, Jasper and Cora. Annette and Jimmy are both university professors; they have three children, all adults, two daughters-in-law, and one adorable grandson, making her a “Nana.”
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After completing her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Indiana University, Annette has spent her entire career in the English Department at Belmont University. Her specialization is Victorian British literature, but over the past six years, she has increasingly focused on her own creative writing, chiefly on poetry. At Belmont, she has worn many hats, participating in countless Belmont committees and serving in many leadership roles. At heart, she is a teacher who loves to build relationships with her students. One cherished and privileged aspect of this teaching has been to teach and lead study away trips in England—some years for just two weeks, some for a month, and once for a whole semester.
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A Board member of Nashville Children’s Theater for nine years, she enjoys attending theater productions of all kinds, whether in London, New York City, or Nashville. She is engaged in many ways at her church, including singing alto in the choir, chairing the leadership council, and participating on the ordination committee. Aside from reading widely, writing, and watching movies and television programs/series, she enjoys baking, travel, and outdoor walks, seeking joy in nature, especially in flowers, trees, and birds, all of which show up in her poems.