Oh.

Yay! South 85 listed on Duotrope!! ❤️🤍 You can still send us work for our next issue: south85journal.com/submissions

New interview with @emmagstephens.bsky.social up @south85journal.bsky.social !! Would LOVE if you gave us a read. ❣️ 🔗: south85journal.com/2026/06/godh...

New interview by @rkalagayanpoet.bsky.social w/ poet Emma Galloway Stephens: <My habit is to write poems about subjects that trouble or puzzle me. In this way, writing feels a bit like praying. It’s an inherently spiritual process to me.> south85journal.com/2026/06/godh...

Wishing a Happy Father’s Day to my dad, who was the first person to call me a poet. He doesn’t remember this, but I do. I always will. I was nine years old. ❤️

Just got my first big-girl acceptance in a print journal . . . and a TRIPLE acceptance, no less. I feel like I’m dreaming.

OPEN NOW! ❤️🤍

This is my very first issue as assistant poetry editor, so PLEASE submit your poems; I can’t wait to read them! 🤗

Sometimes tiered rejections make me feel warmer & fuzzier inside than acceptances tbh 🥹

Thrilled to announce that @maureenlangloss.bsky.social is the new South 85 artist-in-residence, currently working on material for our fall\winter issue, with the theme CITY | COUNTRY. Watch for her photos...here's a quick peek of her beautiful work! (We open for subs on 6/18...details soon)

I've got a patch of publications going on...here's a new story set in Winston-Salem (please come move here, y'all!). Many thanks to @newohioreview.bsky.social for putting together such a great issue & for including my work! newohioreview.org/2026/05/06/l...

@poetrydaily.bsky.social sent me a book! 😍

Guys I did it: @havehashad.com accepted one of my poems! Wearing my skull with the utmost pride. 💀

Successfully submitted to my first @havehashad.com call and am feelin’ like a million bucks!!

I’m a very recent student of traditional Japanese forms, and I just had a haiku accepted for a print haiku journal. Pretty thrilling! 💚

TWO ✌🏽 poems out today in @aboutplacejournal.bsky.social in its incredibly pertinent issue “The Ground Beneath Us: Place, Power & Resistance”: aboutplacejournal.org/issues/the-g...

Got a message from someone on Substack asking if I wanted to beta test his creative writing AI with ONE OF MY POEMS? Hard pass, pal. This has scam written all over it. 🙅🏽‍♀️

New poem out today in The Clayjar Review! ⚱️ You can read my little mediation in the lovely issue release post from the editors on Substack: theclayjar.substack.com/p/silence-84b And, of course, on The Clayjar Review site! :)

My poem “And God Said to Greenville” is officially published at gvlpoetrytrail.com/p/stop4.html! Soon there will be a physical trail marker somewhere in Greenville linking to my work. 😊

Read in a reading with eleven other winners of the very first GVL Poetry Trail today at Greenville’s annual Artisphere festival. What a privilege. 💚 I love the vibrant poetry community in my hometown.

Another new poem! This time in the “Mums” issue of @wildwillowmagazine.bsky.social. 🌸 Check out my little bitty poem here: wildwillowmagazine.com/archive/

I have a new poem out in issue 41 of @soflopojo.bsky.social! Very pleased to appear alongside so many talented others. 💛

I have two new poems out in Euphemism today! PLUS, I’ll be reading in the issue launch on Zoom at 7:30 PM this evening. Details below. 😊

This year is full of surprise after surprise. A poem of mine was selected for a city-wide poetry trail installation in my hometown! 🤯🥹

I wrote a micro essay on one of my favorite poems, and @poetrydaily.bsky.social featured it on “What Sparks Poetry” for National Poetry Month! Read here: poems.com/features/wha...

A non-reader friend texted me, “I want a poetry book to read in the evenings instead of doomscrolling.” 🥹 I gave her a few ideas, but if anyone has recs for beginning poetry readers, drop me a line!

Two ✌🏽 more poem acceptances this evening! Hoping & praying that this energy continues for the last two-thirds of 2026 . . . 🤞🏽

My friend Emma’s book just released YESTERDAY! Purchase on bookshop.org for a mini discount AND to support local bookstores! ✨

New poem out in the world, in Persephone Literary’s Medusa issue for National SA Awareness Month. 10% of proceeds go to RAINN to support survivors. Visit persephoneliterary.com for subscription options and to read an issue preview. 🐍🖤

Check out the sonnet by my friend @doucette515.bsky.social in @rattlepoetry.bsky.social’s latest issue!

My library emailed me to say it is in the process of purchasing the poetry craft book I requested through its Purchase Suggestion portal. Feels strangely akin to a poem acceptance?

Another acceptance, this time in a print journal I’ve been trying to get into for YEARS. I’ve been floating around my house all day hoping I’m not dreaming. 🩶

Two rejections and one acceptance within five 🖐🏽 hours! The whiplash is real.

Well, this is a first. Submitted a few poems yesterday and got a rejection email less than 20 hours later. 🥴 I guess I can be grateful for not having to wait for months just to hear the same thing . . .

“A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman.” —Melinda Gates HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!

My friend Emma wrote a book! Available for pre-order & releases next month. 💚 If you love Appalachia, Southern Gothic, formed verse, or existential questions, NO BILLBOARD GOSPEL is for you! @emmagstephens.bsky.social

Just got TWO poem acceptances for a journal I’m super excited about and haven’t stopped cheesing since. 😁 Turns out there IS a light at the end of the long tunnel of rejections!

It’s been a week of rejections for yours truly, but I did write 1,950 words of creative nonfiction in one day. Sometimes the answer is to pivot?

Accepted for my fifth semester in Converse University’s MFA program, this time in nonfiction! 💜💛

Happy mail 💌 Lolita Stewart-White’s BLACK FRAG / MENTS arrived in my mailbox today!!

Snow poem by me! ❄️ Published in the wonderful anthology TO LAY SUN IN A FOREST by the equally wonderful @sidhepress.bsky.social sidhe-press.eu/books/to-lay...

@south85journal.bsky.social wants YOUR poetry, fiction, CNF, and flash! 🌟 Theme: surprise us 🌟 We nominate for prizes + one published piece will receive the $100 Editor’s Choice Award. 👉🏽 Head to south85journal.com/submissions 👈🏽

Louise Glück 🤍❄️ From hellopoetry.com/poems/20568/snowdrops

Progress! Pictured: part of a lovely tiered rejection I received this snowy morning. We press onward! ☃️

The best thing to come out of this ice storm is a poem acceptance! ✨ The second best thing is that we kept power.

SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN! We only publish from the queue ~ $100 award to 1 published piece ~ work is reviewed by 2 team members ~ we ❤️writers & nominate for prizes ~ our theme is so open you can <surprise us> by ignoring it! Plz share! south85journal.com/submissions/

It’s my birthday AND South 85 released its latest issue? Best day ever. Read at south85journal.com/fall-winter-2025 !

I am so excited for the upcoming issue of @south85journal.bsky.social - releasing SOON!

Leslie is simply the best editor from which to learn the ropes of a literary journal. This hour-ish interview is so worth a listen! ✨