Andy Truscott speaks with author L.J. Sysko about her debut full-length collection The Daughter of Man –selected by Patricia Smith for the Miller Williams Poetry Series, released in April 2023.

L.J. Sysko is the author of two books of poems: her debut full-length collection THE DAUGHTER OF MAN–selected by Patricia Smith for the Miller Williams Poetry Series, released in April 2023–and BATTLEDORE, a chapbook about early motherhood published in 2017 by Finishing Line Press. Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies such as Ploughshares, BEST NEW POETS, Tupelo Quarterly, and The Missouri Review‘s “Poem of the Week,” among others. An MFA in poetry from New England College, Sysko is a Virginia Center for Creative Arts Fellow and was the 2022 Palm Beach Poetry Festival Thomas Lux Scholar.

Also a prose writer, Sysko’s work was selected as a finalist in The Georgia Review‘s inaugural Prose Prize, judged by Jennine Capó Crucet, as well as in The Bellingham Review Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction and The Pinch Literary Awards; it has also been honorably mentioned by Zoetrope’s All Story, judged by novelist Anthony Marra.

A former high school English teacher, Sysko now writes full-time as Director of Executive Communications at Delaware State University. She lives in Wilmington, Delaware with her family.