Sandra Rivers-Gill is an award-winning poet, author and playwright living in Northwest Ohio. Her gifting fuses the rhythm of her work with themes that explore social justice, relationship, family, and personal experiences. Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications, garnering a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. Her debut poetry chapbook, As We Cover Ourselves With Light, (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2023), was a finalist for the 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award, which was featured at the 2024 Ohioana Book Festival. She is the editor of Dopeless Hope Fiends (Radio Room Press, 2018) an anthology of poems written by women in recovery. Her award experiences have secured a finalist prize for the 2015 Promedica Revealing Hunger Spoken Word Contest, the Toledo Museum of Art Ekphrastic Awards, (2010, 2014 and 2017) and Ode to the Zip Code (2017, 2023). She wrote and directed her own one-women show, A Letter to Langston (Zora Neale Hurston’s life and friendship with Langston Hughes}, presented at Bowling Green State University’s Black Issues Conference in 2020. She was one of five award-winning Ohio poets chosen to compose poems about Toledo Metroparks for the #5poets5parks 2025. She has served as a board member and poetry instructor for Naomi Inc, a non-profit treatment facility, a poetry instructor for Otterbein Senior Living Communities (formerly Sunset House), and continues to serve as drama ministry leader directing productions at her church, Friendship Baptist Church in Toledo. Her creative work continues as a Teaching Artist for the Ohio Art’s Council, having been chosen as one of twenty-five Ohio artists to engage older adults in her poetry workshop series, Poetry, Prompts & Pens. Her work with the older adult participants was inspired a poetry group called the Not Dead Yet Poets. She was appointed as the inaugural Poet Ambassador of Northwest Ohio representing the Ohio Poetry Association and is currently serving a two-year term through 2026. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Liberal Studies degrees from the University of Toledo.