Sarah Barnsley was born in Lincolnshire in 1974. After taking an American and English Literature degree at the University of East Anglia, she moved to London and taught in an FE college. She gained her MA and PhD from the University of London, where she now teaches, at Goldsmiths, and is Director of the University of London External BA/Diploma in English Literature taken by over 500 distance-learning students worldwide.
 
Sarah’s poems were shortlisted for an Eric Gregory Award in 2004, and have been published in Envoi, Magma, Mslexia, Raindog, and Obsessed with Pipework. Other work has appeared in anthologies by the Cinnamon Press. Sarah has also published essays on American poetry and poetics. Following her tenure as H.D. Fellow in American Literature at the Beinecke Library, Yale University over 2007-2008, she has recently completed a book manuscript on the American poet Mary Barnard and is co-organising the Mary Barnard Centenary scheduled to take place at Reed College, Portland, Oregon in June 2011. Sarah lives in London.