Meet Dr. Sherry Cook Stanforth, Artist in Residence at TCCCT

Poet, author, and musician Sherry Cook Stanforth holds Appalachian roots in North Georgia, East Tennessee, and Southwestern Ohio.  She grew up in Clermont County, Ohio, earning a PhD in English from the University of Cincinnati.  An emeritus professor of Thomas More University, she specializes in fiction, poetry, environmental and ethnic literatures, and folklore. Currently, she serves as the managing editor of the regional literary journal Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, a core member of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition, and the founder-director of Originary Arts Initiative, collaborating with non-profits to provide arts, culture, and nature-based programs for diverse communities.  Themes reflected in her educational workshops, retreats, public showcases, and creative work emphasize values of cultural curiosity, place-keeping, story-listening, and creative empathy. Stanforth’s poetry collection Drone String (Bottom Dog Press, 2015) reflects the storytelling and music traditions of her Appalachian heritage; she has also produced waterway anthologies, including Riparian: Poems, Short Prose and Photographs Inspired by the Ohio River (Dos Madres Press, 2019), and Tributaria (Dos Madres Press, forthcoming in fall 2025).  She’s spent most of her life playing in an intergenerational family band, and she currently performs folk music with Tangled Roots. Beyond her artistic pursuits, she enjoys hiking, beekeeping, and studying native [email protected]