A Virginia Commission for the Arts Teaching Artist, Lisa Beech Hartz is a poet, fiction writer and workshop guide in the Tidewater Region of Virginia. She directs Seven Cities Writers Project, which brings cost-free writing workshops to underserved communities. She currently guides  workshops in two city jails. She is the author of four poetry collections, all of which were composed in response to visual art. The Goldfish Window (Grayson Books/2018), These Kismets (CutBank Books/2025), Bold, Marvelous (Grayson Books/2026), and the forthcoming The Body Taken (UMass Press/2027).