Oakwood resident Betsy Hughes moved to Dayton as a newlywed and became one of the founding faculty at the Miami Valley School, where she taught for 30 years. Betsy earned her Masters in English from UD and after retiring, returned to UD to moderate courses in literature, creative writing, and the arts for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Betsy has had a lifelong passion for poetry.

Betsy’s first book of sonnets, Breaking Weather was published by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies Press in 2014. Other published collections include Bird Notes, Forest Bathing, and The Lyric. Betsy’s book The Sixth Sense of Loss is dedicated to her husband of 56 years Jim Hughes, who died in 2020. This book includes sonnets and various other genres of formal poetry, including poems of grief.