Jeff Newberry

Jeff Newberry tells stories in poetry and prose and teaches others to do the same. A native of the Florida Gulf Coast, he is an essayist, fiction writer, and a poet. His newest collection, How to Talk About the Dead, was published by Red Hawk Publications.

His writing has been published in a wide variety of national and international journals and magazines. Praised for his depictions of the rural south as well as the sonic quality of his writing, Newberry been has described as "babychild of Lightnin' and Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson and Memphis Minnie" by the poet Al Maginnes.

He is the author of the collection Cross Country (WordTech Editions, 2019), a collaboration with the poet Justin Evans, the novel A Stairway to the Sea (Pulpwood Press), the poetry collection Brackish (Aldrich Press) and the chapbook A Visible Sign (Finishing Line ). With fellow Gulf Coast native, Brent House, he is the co-editor of the anthology The Gulf Stream: Poems of the Gulf Coast (Snake Nation Press). He holds a PhD from the Creative Writing Program at the University of Georgia in Athens.

Dr. Newberry is the vice president of the Southeastern Writers Association.

Dr. Newberry has a passion for serving first-generation college students. His role at ABAC puts him in contact with many such students, and he is open about his own status as a first-generation student. "Someone held the door open for me," he explains. "Academia gave me access to a life I never could have imagined growing up in the trailer parks of North Florida." He works to hold that same door open for students like him looking for their place in the world.