Free poetry workshop happening May 21st! Don't forget to register! variantlit.com/free-poetry-...

"I can’t just speak about suffering as if there isn’t some good in suffering too." - @toddedillard.bsky.social

New work from managing editor @megjnic.bsky.social in Oxford American

We're so excited to feature Todd Dillard @toddedillard.bsky.social and his poem "Strike" from our Spring 2026 Issue OUT NOW! Read the rest of "Strike" and check out his other poem "Emperor of Floods" on our website, linked in our bio!

Incredible!

“In some food pantries, the line between helper and helped is clearly drawn. That is not the case here.” Megan Nichols profiles the work of the Stone County Community Food Ministry in Arkansas and the volunteers who help keep their neighbors fed. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/6Soce

I'm so excited to share that my article about the volunteers and recipients of the Stone County Community Food Ministry appears in this issue. I am so grateful to Oxford American for publishing work about food insecurity and for their editorial guidance. Can't wait for my copy to come in!

Stock up on @triohousepress.org titles during poetry month! Buy one get one free, including pre-orders!! triohousepress.myshopify.com

“Eyes shut, I could be anywhere; we could be anything.” — Megan Nichols . . . This poem appeared in The Baltimore Review, Fall 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

Gay Poetry Finalists Cont'd: It Was Never Supposed To Be by @benkline.bsky.social @variantlit.bsky.social Kitchen Hymns by Pádraig Ó Tuama. @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social Seabeast by @rajivmohabir.bsky.social #Lammys2026

Ok, library geek out moment: My book from @variantlit.bsky.social - IT WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE - just had it's first consortia request! It's headed to a public library outside of Cleveland. The student workers just ran back to my desk to show me! *hollers in circ stat*

Variant Lit @variantlit.bsky.social is accepting poems for a few more weeks. Please send us your work! We love a variety (it's in the name)! so send us your narrative, your lyrical, your sonnets, your funny, your quiet, your heartbreaking. We reply quickly; we pay; we nominate!

My book STIFF WRIST is on sale with @fourteenpoems.bsky.social www.fourteenpoems.com/shop/stiff-w...

Got to make an audio version of my @thelocal.to AI journalism scammer story for one of my favourite podcasts, Question Everything. Show: www.kcrw.com/shows/questi... Apple: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/q...

"...just a few months prior it had been summer, and she lay sticky and pregnant on the laminate floor, her baby cooking inside her like a dragon’s egg over coals." From "Cold Snap," a new short story by @megjnic.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/Uz2mqsr

Short story in the The Rumpus !

Check out this short story by Variant managing editor @megjnic.bsky.social in @therumpus.net ❄️ therumpus.net/2026/02/23/c...

Read a poem today! "Ley Lines" by Nick Daoust variantlit.com/ley-lines/

Celebrating our issue 22 poetry contributors ✨️ T. De Los Reyes / Kathy Jiang / Stefanie Lee / Arielle Kaplan / Christie M Buchovecky / Jane Zwart / Grace H. Zhou / Lalini Shanela Ranaraja / Nick Daoust / DL Pravda / Jeff Whitney / Guinotte Wise variantlit.com/issue-twenty...

@megjnic.bsky.social and the wonderful folks of Lemon Grove Writers are hosting—come for the prompts, stay for the community!

Issue 22 of @variantlit.bsky.social is out! New prose & poetry from these amazing contributors: variantlit.com/issue-twenty...

Meet me at the intersection of FREE! POETRY! under the the tutelage of the wonderful @ashlogophile.bsky.social

Issue 22 is officially here! We'll share highlights from these prose pieces and poems in the coming days. Check out the whole issue here: variantlit.com/issue-twenty...

Free 2-hour writing sprints are open to writers at any stage! Join us at 11:00 AM CT (9:00 AM PT) on the following Saturdays: Feb 28th March 7th March 21st Sign up at lemongrovewriters.com Hosted by writers Megan Nichols, Jessica Lohafer, and Caitlin Morris.

I'm so excited about this free poetry workshop hosted by @variantlit.bsky.social ! Don't forget to register: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Recently read. I got The Island after seeing the introduction was by Madeleine Watts.

Free 2-hour writing sprints are open to writers at any stage! Join us at 11:00 AM CT (9:00 AM PT) on the following Saturdays: Feb 28th March 7th March 21st Sign up at lemongrovewriters.com Hosted by writers Megan Nichols, Jessica Lohafer, and Caitlin Morris.

Love that Sharon Kennedy-Noelle used her project to give youth a voice

In our latest interview, Sharon Kennedy-Nolle reflects on writing, witness, and the forms poetry can take when direct experience is unavailable. Read the interview between Sharon Kennedy-Nolle and @megjnic.bsky.social on Variant's Variety Pack blog: variantlit.com/sharon-kenne...

HAPPY NEWS! I am grateful to the amazing Eugenia Leigh for choosing my manuscript SENTENCE to win the 2025 Nine Syllables Press Chapbook Contest! These poems are as much my brother’s as my own & I am thankful to everyone at Smith College for believing in them! Coming fall 2026! Image: 9SP IG page

⏳ A little over a week remains! Submit today!

@variantlit.bsky.social is still open for submissions! Please send us your short stories, poems, and flash prose by Dec 4th!

Send @variantlit.bsky.social your poetry, flash fiction, and short stories! Less than a month left!

Send your work to Variant if, like me, you're submitting poetry this weekend!

Variant Literature Journal (Fiction Poetry Nonfiction; pays) opened to submissions https://duotrope.com... #amwriting

This month's #Mondettes picked by @happilander.bsky.social ⚡Ten wonderful flash fictions 🔍Ten splashes of analysis as to why Mileva made these brilliant picks 🪴Three fantastic prompts to get you writing mondettes.substack.com/p/october-2025

Remember, @susurrusmag.bsky.social is open for submissions through November 30th! We accept previously unpublished #poetry, #flash, #fiction, #CNF, and #photography from artists across the American South. Check the link below for more: www.susurrusthemagazine.com/submit

We can't wait to read your work! variantlit.com/submit/

When I first started editing a journal, I was baffled by the (occasional) plagiarized poem. It took me a while to understand part of what I think is going on. I believe some people may want to write, but either believe they cant, or actually can't afford to & publication looks like a way in

Grateful to have a poem in this issue!

New poem in Cream City Review alongside the work of so many extraordinary talents! I’m super excited by this one, which is also forthcoming in my collection, MORE FLOWERS, out with Trio House Press in February 2026! 💙💜 @creamcityreview.bsky.social @triohousepress.org

We’re excited to announce that magazine submissions for poetry and prose open October 21st!

Hi! For anyone here who has wanted to join a Lemon Grove Writer's zoom writing sprint - our LAST sprint of 2025 is October 18th AND we're having an open mic. Now is the time to sign up! lemongrovewriters.com/sprint

Every Friday in October, we invite you to explore the depths of creative horror, from the existential to the bone chillingly supernatural. We’ll draw from several different texts including Stephen King, Agatha Christie, Octavia Butler, and many more.

"I spent hours in my bedroom practicing my banter, explaining the nuance of each of my lines, and making sure to perfect the sullen, distant look in my eyes." New issue of my favorite writer's advice series is out! tinyurl.com/bdutdrxf

New from The Variety Pack! In conversation with Variant Editor @williamjcagle.bsky.social, @jamesrgapinski.bsky.social discusses the strange possibilities of fiction from their forthcoming collection The Museum of Future Mistakes from @boa-editions.bsky.social variantlit.com/the-museum-o...

Every Friday in October, we invite you to explore the depths of creative horror, from the existential to the bone chillingly supernatural. We’ll draw from several different texts including Stephen King, Agatha Christie, Octavia Butler, and many more.

My writing group, Lemon Grove Writers, is doing a free Halloween writing series in October. Prompts, rec reading, co-writing sessions, and an open mic! It's freeee. Sign up! lemongrovewriters.com/spooky

Write with nice strangers over zoom! Not as weird as it sounds! ​ ​Our next sprint is: Saturday, September 27th, 2025 11 AM Central / 12 PM Eastern / 9 AM Pacific Sign up at lemongrovewriters.com

"All my talent is in waiting for small eggs to hatch— a treasure I cannot touch. The babies are so translucent you can see their dreams. Shell-memory; soft belly full of worm. What's unraveling is my ambition for more." - "Ars Poetica" by Megan Nichols (@megjnic.bsky.social)