Stephen Sandy studied poetry with Robert Lowell and Archibald MacLeish, earned a PhD from Harvard University, and traveled to Japan on a Fulbright Visiting Lectureship. He was the author of 11 collections of poetry and was honored with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Vermont Council on the Arts, and the Ingram Merrill Foundation. Sandy taught for many years at Bennington College. He is the poet featured in the documentary The Biologist, the Poet and the Funeral Director (2007).