Sandra Jean McPherson (born August 2, 1943 - died August 20, 2024) was an American poet.

Early life and education

McPherson was born in San Jose, California. Her father, Walt McPherson, was head basketball coach at San Jose State and commissioner of the West Coast Athletic Conference. McPherson received her B.A. at San José State University and studied at the University of Washington, with Elizabeth Bishop and David Wagoner. Carolyn Kizer, as editor of Poetry Northwest, published McPherson's first published poems.

Teaching

She has taught at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, Haystack Portland State University, University of California at Berkeley Spring 1981 or 1982 as Roberta Holloway Visiting Lecturer, and the Art of the Wild Conference. She is a Professor Emerita at the University of California at Davis. Having been a featured poet on the poetry circuits of Ohio, Kentucky, and Connecticut, she has also read in most states: Washington D.C., Louisiana, Georgia, Indiana, Utah, Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Florida, Delaware, Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, and California. In 1979, Sandra McPherson visited the University of New Orleans with Tess Gallagher and Galway Kinnell through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Works

Ploughshares

Books

Editor

Honors

Sources