Appalachian writer Skyler Lambert (he/him) grew up in the coal camp of Besoco, West Virginia, where the moon perched atop the ridgeline like a housecat, and spent summers at his grandparents’ farmhouse in Wythe County, Virginia. Ancestral magnetism in those hills draws Skyler back at least once a year.

Skyler’s poetry and creative nonfiction touch on memory, place, class, grief, and the spaces where these ideas intersect. His work is published in riverSedge, Appalachian Journal, The Fourth River, Appalachia Bare, Mantis, Willows Wept Review, Meat for Tea, and elsewhere. Skyler’s memoir-in-progress, Oasis, interrogates generational weight—stagnating trauma, stunting addiction, shackling secrets—asking if it’s possible for one person to simultaneously be a killer and a victim.

Skyler is a member of West Virginia Writers, Inc., Straw Dog Writers Guild, and Grub Street Writers. His poems “Elegy for Earl Morrey” and “A Place of the Heart” placed third, respectively, in the 2026 Mass Poetry Olimpics and the 2025 Poet’s Seat Poetry Contest.

Skyler earned an MA in publishing and writing at Emerson College and a BA in English at Adrian College. He has worked for publishing houses, local newspapers, restaurants, grocery stores, and a fireworks company. Skyler lives in Greenfield, Massachusetts, with his partner and three (very spoiled) pets.