Books

Accompanied by beautiful illustrations by Moises Camacho, Levine’s poem intrigues, and pulls the reader to a strange and fragile state of mind.

—Jason Renaud
Director, Mental Health Heath Association of Portland

I am thrilled to recommend Sherri Levine’s new collection of poetry. Through raw emotion and masterful use of language, she transforms private struggles into art that will resonate with readers. Discover her work—it will stay with you.

—Kevin Fitts
Executive Director, Oregon Mental Health Consumers Association

In Sherri Levine’s I Remember Not Sleeping time and space collapses like a star. This poem is good company for anyone who has struggled with mental health, for anyone who has felt alone, for anyone being bounced around in the sea of life. Which is to say, it’s a poem for all of us.

—Matthew Dickman
Author of Husbandry

A tour de force.

—Pattie Palmer-Baker
Portland Artist and Poet

If one of the aims of poetry is to condense our vast, contradictory, and beautiful world into the briefest of songs, Sherri Levine’s debut collection stands as a testament to its possibility. Each poem maps out the human heart, in all its internal conflicts, with precision and grace. From broken to sustainable relationships, fears of aging to cultural explorations, familial death to gender studies, these poems probe the many paradoxes of living with an open, curious mind and heart. There is great wisdom and honesty here, vulnerability and linguistic perception. This series of meditative poems simultaneously laments and celebrates life, grounding us in a familiar world that eventually open us up to something far greater.

—John Sibley Williams, author of 
As One Fire Consumes Another 
and Skin Memory

Part elegy, part love letter, part confrontation of self and others, Sherri Levine’s first full-length book of poetry traces an emotional journey in which she explores the often confounding mysteries of childhood as they evolve into the traumas and occasional joys of later life: a young woman’s confusion about men, about trust, about the nature of sanity. A difficult mother-daughter relationship resolves at the end of the mother’s life, and the mother becomes, in memory, “more beautiful.” Trouble, love, forgiveness. Isn’t this the way our lives go? Levine’s fine collection ponders these vital conundrums and provides a revelatory path toward understanding them.

—Andrea Hollander, author of 
Blue Mistaken for Sky 
and Landscape with Female Figure

With an artistic, tonal range, Levine’s fearless poems ricochet between captivating and inescapable. At heart, the allure is a strangeness and the energy relentless, as she fulfills with savvy two sections titled “Girl” (then) “Unleashed.” She knows where the journey ends and will not blink. As readers, we better not either. With humor sometimes subtle sometimes dark, images gorgeous or stunning, these poems travel twists and loops and satisfy as they land on sure feet.

—John C. Morrison, author of 
Monkey Island 
and Heaven of the Moment

A collection of voice poems, In These Voices, allows us to peek inside the lives of a variety of characters. Levine, through the magic of language, embodies a jilted lover, a worried husband, a young woman, a son, a granddaughter and even a squirrel.

Levine’s debut, In These Voices, deals in the charms and quirks of language, the vagaries of love and loss, and the confusions and wonders of life going by. It is a wise, delightful collection.

—Joe Wilkins, author of 
When We Were Birds,
winner of the 2017 Oregon Book Award in Poetry

From the first, brilliant poem to the last, tender one, In These Voices is a surprising joy ride.

—Pat Schnider,
author of Writing Along and With Others
and How the Light Gets In

Publications

Sherri Levine is a poet who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her poem, “Facedown,” won the Lois Cranston Memorial Prize (Calyx). She won First Prize (Poet’s Choice) in the Oregon Poetry Association Biannual Contest in 2017. Her work has been published in Prairie Schooner, The Timberline Review, CALYX, Driftwood Press, Poet Lore, The Opiate, Verseweavers, CIRQUE, Clackamas River Review, The Sun Magazine, and others. Sherri served as Poetry Editor for VoiceCatcher Journal. Her chapbook, In These Voices, was published by Poetry Box in 2018. She escaped the long harsh winters of upstate New York and has ever since been happily soaking in the Oregon rain. Sherri is the creator and host of Head for the Hills, a poetry series and open mic sponsored by the Hillsdale Library and now is hosted by Dale Champlin. Her first full-length poetry collection, Stealing Flowers from the Neighbors,” is published by Kelsay Press. Sherri recently published A Joy to See (Just a Lark Books, 2023) an ekphrastic poetry book of 27 prominent poets of her mother, Kay Levine’s artwork. She and the poets read the book at Powell’s in June of 2023. Her next illustrated poetry book, I Remember Not Sleeping will be published in 2024.

Awards & Recognitions

Poetry Moves [Season 13], Vancouver WA

The Mineral School Artist’s Residency, Washington

Poet’s First Choice Winner in Oregon Poetry Association Fall Contest 2017

Lois Cranston Memory Poetry Prize 2019

Honorary Mention Winner in Oregon Poetry Association Spring Contest 2019

Second Place Winner in Oregon Poetry Association Fall Contest 2020

Judge for Oregon Poetry Association Spring Contest 2022