"Here to Stay" collects #poetry & prose from 53 undocumented writers in America. "A poem cannot protect a person without documents from arrest. But it is capable of a resonant whisper" say the #undocupoets editors @marcelohcastillo.bsky.social @j9joseph.bsky.social & @estherwslin.bsky.social

ALL Haymarket Books are 40% off through August 22nd! ✊🏾✊🏿✊🏽

I’m closing my time as a Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project with a new op-ed in Prism Reports. Next week is AWP & the piece is perfectly timed—if you’re attending & browsing the bookfair, pay attention to the submission guidelines you come across & invite people into more inclusive practices.

Excited to release HEAVEN LOOKS LIKE US: Palestinian Poetry with @haymarketbooks.org, coming to your nearest bookstore in May 2025. The cover is from Palestinian artist Jumana Manna & features brilliant poetry from Palestinian comrades all over the world. @intifadabatata.bsky.social

1000% this. Public libraries are actually pretty radical--free to all, and based on the idea that info should be available to all. Get a library card! Use your library! Those numbers often play into their funding.

A workshop opportunity. Limited slots for virtual class partial acholarships available docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

HERE TO STAY, as reviewed by @christophernelson.bsky.social for Green Linden Press: “And what coheres in these pages—despite stylistic and formal variety—is the power of art to make the poet and the reader more whole, and to intend a more whole future and a more complete sense of history.”

Read this intimate profile on poet, @j9joseph.bsky.social written by @serenazets.bsky.social for the @wcp.bsky.social: washingtoncitypaper.com/article/7565... Janine will be at Hill Center on Thursday, get your tickets now: www.hillcenterdc.org/event/the-li... @poetrysociety.bsky.social #DCTODO

Tomorrow, we will have the talented (and formerly undocumented) poet and librettist, @j9joseph.bsky.social come to speak at Hill Center. Here is a blog to learn more about her life and work: https://bit.ly/JanineJosephBlog #ThingsToDoInDC #Poet #Writer

I’m not looking forward to much of next week, but onwards we go—& a bright spot is Thursday when I’ll be in conversation with poet Kyle Dargan for the Life of a Poet series Hill Center. Many thanks to everyone making this event possible, including Mary Ann Brownlow and Serena Zets.

On January 23rd, we will have the talented (and formerly undocumented) poet and librettist, @j9joseph.bsky.social come to speak at Hill Center. Here is a blog to learn more about her life and work: https://bit.ly/JanineJosephBlog #ThingsToDoInDC #Poet #Writer

On January 23rd, we will have the talented (and formerly undocumented) poet and librettist, @j9joseph.bsky.social come to speak at Hill Center. Here is a blog to learn more about her life and work: https://bit.ly/JanineJosephBlog #ThingsToDoInDC #Poet #Writer

Friends in the DC and DMV area! On January 23rd, I’ll be talking with poet, editor, and American University professor Kyle Dargan as part of The Life of a Poet series at the Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital in DC. I hope you’ll join us: www.hillcenterdc.org/event/the-li...

Submissions are now OPEN for the annual Undocupoets Fellowship! Three $500 fellowships + all-inclusive scholarships to attend the 2025 Summer Workshop Program at the Fine Arts Work Center. Open to poets who are currently or formerly undocumented in the United States. DEADLINE: 2/14 at 11:59 pm ET

On January 23rd, we will have the talented (and formerly undocumented) poet and librettist, @j9joseph.bsky.social come to speak at Hill Center. Here is a blog to learn more about her life and work: https://bit.ly/JanineJosephBlog #ThingsToDoInDC #Poet #Writer

Cheers to the poets! It is, as always, a joy to serve on this committee. The @bookcritics.bsky.social poetry longlist is live!

Help me pick a new author photo

For Mizna, I reflect on this moment of honoring Palestinians at the National Book Awards @nationalbook.bsky.social & sit more deeply with @lenakt.bsky.social & Fady Joudah's earth-shattering books. An honor to publish both finalist readings, including Fady's new poem 🍉🇵🇸 mizna.org/mizna-online...

I am keeper of the post-MFA tumblr (crowdsourced) which has tons of info on post-MFA fellowships, BUT it also has info on residencies—with a whole section of shorter residencies for caregivers! Pass it on! #writers #writingcommunity post-mfa.tumblr.com/residencies

Hide the poets—

Sometimes there are perks to walking your pup in 37 degree weather—above us last night was a lunar halo, which I’d never seen before 🧿

We are looking for members for our Reader Board. These volunteer readers’ responsibilities would primarily include reading manuscripts for contests, open reading periods, and solicited submissions, and more! Applications are due by 11/30. www.sundresspublications.com/openings/#re...

“A poet is a nightingale who sits in the darkness, and sings” —Shelley, in Defense of Poetry * "In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing About the dark times." —Bertolt Brecht

Documents like these tell a wild story of my life as a formerly undoc person. My college diploma was signed by Schwarzenegger, who repealed a law allowing undoc people the right to obtain driver’s licenses. My naturalization certificate was signed by Obama, who left office as “Deporter-In-Chief.”

I made a starter pack for Bull City press authors, guests, and friends. go.bsky.app/PhcmmC7

Cherry Tree Poetry Faculty Member @j9joseph.bsky.social co-wrote this performance to honor healthcare workers. It definitely shows a poet's sense of sound and structure! www.youtube.com/watch?v=klYA... More info about the Cherry Tree Young Writers' Conference can be found at www.washcoll.edu/ywc

Read @j9joseph.bsky.social's poems, Stephanie Burt says, "and you’ll find rare intelligence" as well as "syntactic verve ... at almost every imaginable speed." Janine will lead a Poetry Workshop full of verve & intelligence at Cherry Tree this year, July 16-19. For more info: www.washcoll.edu/ywc

The poetry workshop at the Cherry Tree Young Writers' Conference this year (July 16-19) will be led by @j9joseph.bsky.social. Watch Janine read her searing poem, "Everything Signed and Filed": www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu8r... For more info about the Conference, please visit: www.washcoll.edu/ywc

The Cherry Tree Young Writers' Conference (July 16-19) offers workshops in poetry, fiction, and journalism. Here's a spotlight on the Poetry Workshop, led by Janine Joseph @j9joseph.bsky.social For more info about the Conference schedule, fees, and registration, please visit www.washcoll.edu/ywc

Cinelle Barnes is a role model to me, someone who offered critical feedback on my manuscript and someone whose books have made me feel seen. Now she needs our help. Cinelle suffered a brain aneurysm last week. Please give if you can to help her and her family during her recovery: gofund.me/004657e6

Bro. Bro. Listen! Bro, shit is turning, bro, turning in the widening gyre, man. The falcon, dude, cannot hear the fuckin falconer, I swear it's true bro, Things fall apart man; the centre? The center cannot fuckin hold bro, not even a little bit It's just anarchy, bro, loosed upon the world, man

See you soon, Miami! ✈️

Anne Boyer has resigned as the poetry editor of the New York Times magazine: “Because our status quo is self-expression, sometimes all artists have left is to refuse. So I refuse.”

Yesterday, I got to talk about DECADE OF THE BRAIN, poetic forms, community, and Undocupoets with a class taught one of my favorite humans. Here we are after, outside The American Dream Room at Sarah Lawrence College. Thanks for 17 whopping years of poetry & friendship, @caesura.bsky.social 🤗

Search drinks in your camera roll.

Thank you to all who signed/shared the open letter to the Pulitzer Prizes, who wrote letters of support, who asked how to help, who answered phone calls & texts, who met on zoom, who advocated for this change. It cannot be overstated how significant a change this is for our literary landscape. 💞🌻

So many folks are sick again so I share this with love: you must rest. Rest won’t guarantee you don’t get long covid but it’s a huge mitigator. Even if you have an accute mild case. Even if you don’t feel it at all. Send this to your boss. Make your partner clean or use disposable dishes etc.

Drop something blue from your gallery.

Move out of the way, orchids and birds of paradise, I’ve fallen in love with coxcombs. 🧠

Deeply moved by this essay by Joe Garcia. “As Swift sang…I thought about a time before my incarceration, when I briefly broke up with the woman I loved. She came to my house to return one of my T-shirts.… I sensed that someone was there, but, by the time I opened the door, she was gone.”

“And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones / and I thought, This is the world I want to live in. / The shared world.” - Naomi Shihab Nye

Many thanks to Southern Indiana Review for this review of DECADE OF THE BRAIN 🥰🧠🤗 The book’s been in the world eight months now & it’s a wonder people are continuing to read & engage with it. An excerpt:

Took a jet-lagged nap upon arriving back in nyc & dreamt I forgot to repack my luggage for Bread Loaf & showed up with three articles of clothing that didn’t fit.

in case you haven’t seen it yet: there’s an open letter to the Pulitzer Prizes for literature, asking that they change the prizes’ citizenship rules 🌱 please share if you’d like https://lithub.com/dear-pulitzer-prizes-its-time-to-recognize-literature-by-noncitizens/

Sign the Open Letter: https://www.undocupoets.org

On the bullet train to Seoul—didn’t realize I would have to pop my ears so much!

Hello from Busan 🌝

Esther Lin’s debut collection, COLD THIEF PALACE, winner of the 2023 Alice James Award, comes out March 2025. I can’t wait.

a story about me trying to write poems again after a long hiatus or a narrative about the Coney Island Wonder Wheel from the NYT

New author photo bc this is who I am now.