Sarah Riggs

Sarah Riggs is the author of seven books of poetry, including most recently The Nerve Epistle (Roof Books, 2021), as well as Eavesdrop (Chax Press, 2020), Chain of Minuscule Decisions in the Form of a Feeling (Reality Street Editions, 2007), 60 Textos (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010), Autobiography of Envelopes (Burning Deck, 2012), Waterwork (Chax Press, 2007), and Pomme & Granite (1913 Press, 2015). Her essays were published as Word Sightings (2002). She has translated six poetry books from French: Isabelle Garron’s Face Before Against (Litmus Press, 2008); Marie Borel, Wolftrot, co-translated with Omar Berrada (Fence Books/La Presse, 2006); Ryoko Sekiguchi, Two Markets Once Again (The Post Apollo Press, 2008); Oscarine Bosquet, Present Participle, co-translated with Ellen LeBlond-Schrader (Fence Books/La Presse, 2012), and TIME (Nightboat Books, 2019) by Etel Adnan. Sarah Riggs’ translation from the French of Etel Adnan’s TIME won the International Griffin Poetry Award, The Best Translated Book Award, and was nominated for the PEN Translation Award and the Lambda Award, in 2020.

Riggs is also a filmmaker, artist, and podcaster. In 2004, she and Omar Berrada created Tamaas, an intercultural arts association, with a focus on creation- based projects intersecting poetry with translation, film, dance, education and earth arts justice. Projects include the multilingual poetry journal READ: A Journal of Inter-Translation, the podcast “Invitation to the Species,” translation seminars, and films set in Tangier, New York and beyond. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Omar Berrada and their two daughters.