We're thrilled to announce our 2025 Pushcart Prize Nominations! Congrats and good luck to Ashley Cline, Derek Chan, Aekta K, Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey, and Cleo Qian!

Announcing our 2025 Monarch Queer Literary Awards nominations!! @icarus-flies.bsky.social "Grief Is the Raven" Olivia Lehman "Winter Solstice" @gardnerdorton.bsky.social "Love Poem Featuring Ton 618" Malik Thompson "*" Keenan Teddy "Sonnet Unrequited" CB Wilson "We Harvested, We Harvested"

Honored to have a new poem published by @glasspoetry.bsky.social today. It’s about my Queerness, my grandma, and being glamorous af. I also didn’t realize it would be coming out a couple of days after her birthday. Happy birthday, grandma.

It shouldn't matter if Trump’s victims have criminal records. If we only defend the “innocent,” the fascists will argue that their victim “was no angel.” An anti-fascist rhetoric that carves out exceptions for imperfect victims is a gift to our opponents. New from me for @us.theguardian.com:

TOMORROW IS THE FINAL DAY for summer writing residencies in all genres at the Sundress Academy for the Arts. Fellowships available for writers of color and travel grants are available for Black and/or Indigenous writers! www.sundresspublications.com/news/2024/12...

It didn’t harm the anti-abortionists when someone got an abortion. It didn’t harm cis people when someone changed their gender marker. It didn’t harm anyone when a teenager used hormone blockers. Fake outrage causes real damage. It’s about control, not about preventing harm.

Just because you can't control every terrible thing doesn't mean you're powerless. Find a way to DO something. Think small, think local. Here's today's suggestion: train to become a practical support volunteer and support people traveling to access abortion care. apiaryps.org/pollination-...

The National Archives is looking for volunteers with an increasingly rare skill: Reading cursive.

Make sure it explodes into glitter shrapnel that lodges into heteronormativity forever.

video games are an invaluable tool in teaching children to find and kill god

For @newrepublic.com I wrote about Black southerner gun culture, the rifle in the closet. So check that out because I'd be pleased to share with you. newrepublic.com/article/1893...

I had the chance to work with Poet Lore to pick some amazing poems! I really hope y’all enjoy my selections www.poetlore.com/2024/12/17/v...

Let’s see you at 21. This was in a K-Mart fitting room. It was the last time I’d go to a Black Friday with my grandma, the only person in my family who was nothing but happy for me when she found out I was gay and in love.

Struck by how quick and insightful this poem by Perry Levitch in the new @newenglandreview.bsky.social is— “fishbowl / of unparticular malaise. like everywhere.” #poetry #amreading #poets #poem

My biggest accomplishment at work: People skip their breaks less and respond with some variation of “I will right now, no free labor!” when I ask if they’ve gone yet.

BREAKING: Autonomous anti-genocide activists bring the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to a grinding halt after blockading the McDonald’s float for a second year in a row. “Those grinches who thinks they can disrupt the parade: it’s not going to happen,” Mayor Eric Adams said yesterday.

HELLO FRIENDS! I HAVE A REALLY BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!! My debut poetry collection /a chronology of blood/ has been picked up for publication Fall 2025 by The University of New Mexico Press. I am so, SO excited for you to read these poems, which began once upon a time as my MFA thesis. ❤

#GivingTuesday is coming soon... To all of the wealthy liberals and progressive foundations that will soon be panic donating to the "resistance"—below are nonprofit organizations that monitor, research, and produce in-depth analysis on the far right, violent extremists, and authoritarian movements👇

When The Cincinnati Review asked if wanted to write anything for their sex issue, I was like uhh really?? Then I remembered I am *thee* Carrie Bradshaw of Queens and wrote a craft essay on why funny sex scenes are GOOD and even “LITERARY”? Hope you enjoy these tips on writing hehe and haha sex. 🥵🤡

Poetry is the language of intensity. Because we are going to die, an expression of intensity is justified. —C.D. Wright

Oral historian Rae Garringer looks back on the ten year journey to publishing their book “Country Queers: A Love Letter.”

When I fall asleep watching tv, I always know my husband noticed—he sets the tv to wind chimes and rain sounds before he goes to another room to play video games.

We should care about what’s going on in Gaza for MANY reasons. But if you need a selfish one, look up “imperial boomerang.” Weapons and practices being used out in the colonies are eventually used on citizens as well. Black people BEEN trying to warn y’all.

Dear Editors — If you’re considering publishing an article about issues related to transgender people, then perhaps you should consider assigning that article to a transgender journalist. Don’t have any transgender journalists in your newsroom? @transjournalists.org has several valuable resources:

Heard her grumbling on the ground while I edited poems. I guess she wanted to help.

This is such a powerful poem by Hieu Minh Nguyen (@hieuminh.bsky.social). If you ever felt "not enough" for your parents or where raised in a "thin is good!" / diet culture home, this one if for you. It's one of my all-time favorite poems.

Hey friends— Over the past few years I’ve done a roundup of trans/nonbinary/gender non-conforming *debut* authors. I’m building my 2024 list now! Send me your favorites (or yours if you debuted this year)! Last year’s here for reference: chireviewofbooks.com/2023/12/22/6...

Thanks to NAR for pubbing my ghazal! northamericanreview.org/open-space/p...

A lot of people have shared this poem over the past week. It’s a sentiment I think about a lot, especially now. I hope everyone is doing what they need to take care of themselves. One step at a time. One day at a time.

Because maybe you need this poem as much as I do.

Watched Netflix’s HOT FROSTY, expecting a cheesy, spicy, Christmas Rom-Com. (It is) But it made me realize how, when I’m around people I love, I often think about how one of us will die first (and how that drastically shapes my relationships with people). I just wanted a sexy snowman.

For my newsletter I wrote about some things I learned as a young activist that have just stayed true over the last 35 years. I’ve thought of a few more, will put those in the next one.

This is still my advice: Become a writer anyway. Fuck it, do it, it won't save you, but it's still a beautiful dream to write novels and short stories and poems and mingle with other dreamers and make art and laugh in the face of death. And writing is constant death. Live más.