Benjamin Aleshire is a poet who for many years has made a living by composing poems for strangers on a manual typewriter – on Royal Street in the French Quarter, as well as in Paris, Havana, Madrid, New York, London, Montréal, and San Francisco. He also has a background in photography, printmaking, book-arts, music, and theatre. Aleshire has toured internationally as a trumpet player, exhibited his letterpress broadsides in museums, performed in burlesque shows, and once ran away with a Mexican circus. At A Studio in the Woods, he will be polishing an autofiction novel manuscript, POET FOR HIRE, which incorporates many of these experiences. He will also be revising a poetry manuscript, FAKE NOOSE—a collection of (mostly political) poems written for strangers through the years. Photo by Clare Welsh.