Julie Parson Nesbitt

Julie Parson Nesbitt (she/her) is the author of the poetry collection Finders (West End Press, 1996), and co-editor of Power Lines: A Decade of Poetry from Chicago’s Guild Complex (Tia Chucha Press, 1999). She received the Gwendolyn Brooks Significant Illinois Poets Award from Gwendolyn Brooks herself in 1999. Parson Nesbitt’s poetry has been published in Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry (Third World Press, 2022) and other anthologies and journals. She also published essays, including “‘A Cool Baby and a Good One Too:’ Reflections of a White Mom” in What Does It Mean To Be White in America? (2Leaf Press, 2016). Her book reviews appeared nationally in Publishers Weekly and other journals. 

Parson Nesbitt contributed to growing the poetry scene in Chicago in the 1980s, with a focus on emerging, community-based, youth, and performance poetry. As Executive Director of the Guild Complex from 1999 to 2003, she produced the annual 3-day Women Writers’ Festival and served as editor of Tia Chucha Press. Between 2003 and 2005 she was Development Director for Young Chicago Authors. She has served on the Board of Directors for Guild Complex, WBEZ Community Advisory Board, and other organizations.

Parson Nesbitt performed her poetry in the first Chicago Poetry Slams at the Get Me High Lounge and Green Mill, as well as throughout Chicago Public Schools. 

Parson Nesbitt received an MFA in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh in 1993.