Leigh Sugar

Leigh Sugar lives in Michigan, where she grew up. Her debut poetry collection FREELAND is forthcoming from Alice James Books (2025). She edited the anthology “That’s a Pretty Thing to Call It: Prose and poetry by artists teaching in carceral institutions” (New Village Press, 2023). Leigh earned an MFA in poetry from NYU and an MPA in Criminal Justice Policy from John Jay College, and has taught creative and academic writing in various settings including CUNY’s Institute for Justice and Opportunity, NYU, Poetry Foundation, Justice Arts Coalition, and various prisons in Michigan. Poems appear or are forthcoming in POETRY, Split This Rock, jubilat, Tupelo Quarterly, and more. Leigh supports Rachel Zucker on her poetry podcast Commonplace,  and co-facilitates Access Oriented Lit, a free online reading series by and for disabled writers. She is represented by Ayla Zuraw-Friedland at the Frances Goldin Literary Agency.