Sandy Coomer is a poet, artist, and endurance athlete. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals and magazines and she is the author of three poetry chapbooks: Continuum (Finishing Line Press), The Presence of Absence (Winner of the Janice Keck Literary Award for Poetry), and Rivers Within Us (Unsolicited Press). One full-length collection, Available Light, was published by Iris Press in 2019. Another, The Broken Places, was published by Saddle Road Press in 2021. Sandy’s art has been featured in local art shows and exhibits and has been published in over 40 publications. She is a marathon runner and an Ironman triathlete, having completed a full Ironman and qualified for and raced in the World Championships for the Half Ironman distance.
Sandy has been a writer-in-residence four times at three different facilities and dreamed of starting a writers’ colony in middle Tennessee. In March 2018, that dream became reality when Sandy purchased 65 acres of land in College Grove, TN. The property had once been a bed and breakfast, making it a perfect candidate for a writers’ colony. Since then, she has worked to build and shape the property into Rockvale Writers’ Colony.
Cognizant of her blessings and the recipient of generosity and kindness from countless other writers, Sandy feels a keen responsibility to give back to the community, particularly to the community of poets and writers. She is the founding editor of Rockvale Review, an online poetry journal, the co-host of Black Dog Poetry Open Mic, and actively participates in the literary scene of middle Tennessee with open-mics and readings. Sandy is a teacher, a dreamer, a seeker, and an explorer. Her favorite word (so much so that she has it tattooed on her left forearm) is “Believe.”