Betsy Fagin

Betsy Fagin is the author of Fires Seen From Space (Winter Editions), All is Not Yet Lost (Belladonna), and Names Disguised (Make Now Books). Self-driving, chosen by Kazim Ali as winner of the 2024 Autumn House Poetry Prize, is forthcoming in 2025. She works as a librarian and a meditation teacher in New York City, helping people navigate complexity.

That's the brief writing bio above. What's the best way to communicate something about myself? Maybe an artist statement, but I'm still working on that. Maybe something about my personal life, but that's not the internet's business. For folks who speak astrology and human design, I can say that I came in with the Sun in Taurus, Moon in Capricorn and Scorpio rising. I've got a cute Gemini stellium in the 8th house and Jupiter conjunct my Moon in the 3rd house along with the North Node– I'm here for communication and my subject matter tends to be 8th house concerns, the stuff nobody likes to talk about. I think astrology nerds can hear me.

In Human Design terms, I'm a quad left 1/3 manifesting generator with sacral authority, RAX of the sphinx. Even if that doesn't translate, knowing that this circuitry is made up of 11 individual channels and only 1 tribal channel can be something of a preview into my inner workings. My dharma is to empower myself and others in recognizing and honoring our own authority. This is what I can offer in the collective effort to shift the world we're experiencing now toward one where liberation for all beings is a reality. I do this through my writing and listening, waiting to respond to what I resonate with, sharing presence.