Poet & Resource for the Poetry Community
The Self Is an Ocean (DarkWinter Press, 2026)
Cypher’s The Self Is an Ocean is a vulnerable, gut-wrenching, and heart-filling debut of a poetry collection. Having read some of Cypher’s work before reading this collection, I knew how honest and personal her writing is. Still, I was not prepared for how deep she brings us into her history—experiences both painful and joyous—and it was an honor to be invited there.
I have another poem from Writing in the Dark’s WANTED intensive to share with you!
Week five explored desire as a threshold for transformation. The prompt (and my poem) was inspired by James Wright’s “The Blessing,” which ends with the line: “Suddenly I realize / That if I stepped out of my body I would break / Into blossom.”
We were asked to write down four memories of being undone by something non-human. Two of my memories would have brought me back to the ocean themes I explored at the beginning of this intensive. But I chose instead to write about my encounter with a coyote.
Hoping for a generative writing summer? I’ve curated a list of upcoming workshops to keep you creating through July and August.
Happy writing!
Women’s Studies Poetry Workshop: Millennial Becomings with Diane Álvarez-Hughes
Poetic Archaeology: Digging for New Language with Tina Barry via Writers.com
Writing in the Dark’s WANTED intensive is complete, but I still have pieces from weeks four through six to share with you.
Week four was about turning away from desire, which brought an interesting twist: I wrote a prose piece! I can’t decide if it’s a prose poem or a flash memoir/non-fiction piece, but I think that it works well in prose. (Though I say this without having attempted to rewrite it in stanzas.)
I’ve noticed a lot of journals I’ve been published in are currently open for submissions, so I put together a little list of open calls for journals in which I’ve been published and highly recommend submitting to.
Happy submitting!
*Note that while this list focuses on poetry submissions, most of these journals publish other genres. See individual submission guidelines for more.
The ocean theme continues in week three of Writing in the Dark’s WANTED intensive . Which makes sense because the ocean and marine life is my whole personality right now (I’ve included my current physcal TBR stack above as proof).
Week three’s theme was “The Language of Trembling & Objects of Displaced Desire.” The lesson and exercise were inspired by Maggie Nelson’s Bluets , which I’ve heard so much about but have yet to read (yet another book on my TBR).
I’m behind in both completing “Writing in the Dark’s” WANTED intensive and in sharing the pieces I’m writing each week, but I guess that’s the beauty of self-paced workshops—you can complete them on your own time!
Below is the piece I wrote for Week 2: Sex Without Love and the Unruly Body. Note that despite week two’s title, the lesson and prompts were NOT about writing sex poems, though it was a route writers could take, if desired. The focus was more on the feeling of desire in the body. As someone who has no plans to have children, I was surprised that I wrote a poem about the body’s desire to feel the weight of a newborn baby. But I think I know where it’s coming from . . .
I’ve been wanting to upgrade to a paid subscription to Jeannine Ouellette’s “Writing in the Dark” Substack for awhile now, and was finally pulled to do so when she announced her current six-week intensive WANTED, which focuses on desire as a force in writing and in life.
Desire is something I’ve been thinking about a lot in the past year. It was one of the things that brought me back to therapy in January 2025. I’ve felt aimless for awhile. Both in life and in my writing. And one question that seems to keep me from moving toward anything is: what do I want?
National Poetry Writing Month 2026 is upon us! You might already have a hoard of prompts to keep you writing your daily poems all month. But in case you need a little extra motivation or accountability, I’ve curated a list of multi-session workshops happening in April, including a couple of 30-day workshops.
Happy writing!
April Poetry Challenge: 30 Poems in 30 Days via Hollie Hardy
Unfold: 30 Poems in 30 Days (30 sessions) with Tristan Richards + 7 guest hosts throughout the month
I had a new poem published in Issue 11 of Ink & Marrow in February and another in Issue 1 - 2026 of Full House Literary earlier this month.
Ink & Marrow is one of my favorite literary journals. It’s run by poets I met during my two rounds of Megan Falley’s Poems That Don’t Suck workshop. One thing I love about this journal is that most issues contain only 7 to 11 poems, making them intimate and digestible.