Ali Beemsterboer holds a Master’s in Teaching from Western Washington University, and is currently teaching 9th and 10th grade English at Burlington Edison High School. Next year, she will be teaching English at Whatcom Intergenerational High School, a charter school in Bellingham, WA with an emphasis on social justice and phenomenon based learning. As a teacher, she cares deeply about authentic learning in the 21st century. Her long term goal is to participate in revamping the education system to be more equitable, authentic and meaningful for a digital and global world. We are living in a time when there is A LOT of info at our fingertips and there’s no need to memorize. Instead, it’s important for students to learn to be critical of all kinds of texts and engage in a digital and global economy in healthy and meaningful ways.
She also received her MFA from Western, during which she worked as a poetry editor for the Bellingham Review and taught freshman composition. She loves reading and writing multi-genre works that are playful and inventive with form. Some of her favorite authors include: Anne Carson, Jenny Boully, and of course, Emily Dickinson. She is a poetry editor for Psaltery and Lyre. Her first manuscript, The Body is a Situation, is currently in submission, and she is working on her second book about chronic pain and illness.
When she’s not writing or teaching she likes to make things. She crochets, paints, gardens, and loves DIY projects. She has a dog and 2 cats who keep her busy as an animal mom.
Ali Beemsterboer 