Robin Coste Lewis was born in Compton, California. She received an MFA from New York University and an MTS from the Divinity School at Harvard University. She is the author of Voyage of the Sable Venus (Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), winner of the National Book Award in poetry. Lewis has taught at Wheaton College, Hunter College, and Hampshire College. She currently serves as the poet laureate of Los Angeles, where she lives.