BENJAMIN ALESHIRE
poet for hire
Benjamin Aleshire is a twenty-first century troubadour. For many years he made his living by traveling the world as a poet-for-hire with a manual typewriter, composing poems for strangers in the streets of New Orleans, Paris, Barcelona, Havana, London, and San Francisco—as well as at festivals, private events, weddings, and conferences. Clients include Bernie Sanders, Jimmy Page, Sir Tom Stoppard, House of Yes, Princeton University, Shakespeare & Co in Paris, the Troubadour London, and the Bellagio Las Vegas.
Aleshire's debut collection, POEMS FOR BYSTANDERS, has been awarded the 2026 Faulkner-Wisdom Prize, and will be published by Lavender Ink in the fall of 2027.
Featured in The Times (UK), Southern Review, Boston Review, Iowa Review, London Magazine, Lit Hub, the Poetry Foundation, El Mundo (Spain), NEON (Germany) and on television in the US, China, and Spain.
For info on booking Ben for a typewriter live event, click here.
To read some of his published work, click here.