Shelby Handler is a queer Ashkenazi writer, organizer, and nascent translator living in Seattle on Dxʷdəwʔabš (Duwamish) and unceded Coast Salish land. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in POETRY, Prairie Schooner, The Iowa Review, Massachusetts Review, Redivider, Poetry Northwest, Black Warrior Review Online, The Journal, Southern Indiana Review, among others.
Shelby received their MFA in poetry at the University of Washington-Seattle, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and was a finalist for Palette Poetry’s Emerging Poet Prize, judged by Ilya Kaminsky. Shelby has received fellowships, support, and residencies from Tin House, the Richard Hugo House, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Centrum, Mineral School, the Seventh Wave, Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington, Jack Straw Cultural Center, Gay City Arts, Asylum Arts, and the Yiddish Book Center.
Shelby has worked as a teaching artist for Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers in the Schools (WITS), Youth Speaks Seattle, and Arts Corps. Currently, they organize full-time with Jewish Voice for Peace.
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