SARA RIES DZIEKONSKI

Sara Ries Dziekonski was named Runner-Up for the Press 53 Poetry Award for her manuscript, Today’s Specials, which was published in the Fall of 2024 as a Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection. She is a Buffalo native and holds an MFA in poetry from Chatham University. Her first book, Come In, We're Open, which she wrote about growing up in her parents’ diner, won the 2009 Stevens Poetry Manuscript Competition. Ries Dziekonski taught composition and literature at Erie Community College before teaching for SENA in Colombia. Her chapbooks include Snow Angels on the Living Room Floor and Marrying Maracuyá, which won the Cathy Smith Bowers Chapbook Competition. Her poems have appeared in American Life in Poetry, Slipstream, Potomac Review, SWWIM Every Day, Connecticut River Review, and LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, among others. Ries Dziekonski is the co-founder of Poetry Midwives Editing and Submission Services and teaches creative writing for Keep St. Pete Lit. She lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, with her husband, two kids, and cat.