Announcements
March 4, 2024
Zoeglossia has been made aware of the situation concerning Gaia Thomas’s GoFundMe campaign. Gaia is not an employee of Zoeglossia, nor was Zoeglossia involved with this fundraiser, but we have attempted to contact them and encourage them to reach out to the recipients of the GoFundMe campaign.
Nov. 9, 2023
Statement from the Board: A Reaction to Recent Internal Events
Zoeglossia aims to create and sustain an open, inclusive, and supportive space for disabled poets of all backgrounds that is anti-racist, accessible, and intolerant to homophobia and anti-trans rhetoric.
We are distressed to learn how our organization has failed to satisfy this mission on behalf of our staff members, Saleem Hue Penny and Walela Nehanda. We take allegations of racism, transphobia, power imbalances, failures of transparency, and hostile work environments seriously. As the board continues to collect information and learn more about what has transpired, we wish to communicate the following:
Effective November 5, Executive Director Sheila Black has resigned from her position at Zoeglossia.
The Board has made a commitment to undergo an internal review of our practices as an organization and our mission to create a supportive, inclusive environment.
The Board and staff wish to extend an apology to Saleem Hue Penny and Walela Nehanda and offer reassurance that their grievances are being read and no retaliation will come of their resignation and concerns. We are grateful for the time, care, and energy they dedicated to Zoeglossia Fellows.
We hope also to recognize the hardship these events place on the Zoeglossia community of Fellows whose well-being and strong sense of community as peers and fellow poets is our highest priority.
Zoeglossia Board
January 2023
Coming Soon
Zoomglossia (Alabrava Press – 2023)
Zoomglossia: A Reading Series by Disabled Poets
Alabrava Press – 2023
A Limited-Edition Anthology
Acknowledgements Page
Sylvia Chan – “Early June When We Break” first published in Contra Viento Journal, Issue 3
C. S. Giscombe – “SECOND DREAM” from an in-progress collection called Negro Mountain
Gaia Thomas – “usually love you”
Viktoria Valenzuela – “Plutonian”
Genevieve Arlie – “True Fresh” first published as part of the “Disability Poetry Folio”, Tupelo Quarterly, Fall 2022, ed by Christopher Salerno
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke – “Viscera,” first published in World Literature Today.
Maurice Moore – “Visual Poem” “Body Euphoria (Feat. Trans Is Beautiful, Big Boi Energy,) Published on the occasion of the exhibition, Personal Histories: Work by 2021 AYP AIR Artists, Printed/Edited by: Verge Center for the Arts, Print edition of 150, Sacramento, California, 2022.
Karl Knights – “Arthur Honeyman’s Birthday: 3:00 A.M., 1970. First appeared in Kin, the New Poet’s List, 2022
Jim Ferris – “Self-Portrait #10 with Black Riviera”
Stephanie Heit – “Gill Club” first appeared in Sinister Wisdom, 125
Kimberly Jae – “Black Momma Math” first appeared in In the Shadow of the Mic: Three Decades of Slam Poetry in Pittsburgh, edited by Jesse Welch and Adriana E. Ramirez. It was published through Bridge and Tunnel Books in October 2020.
Ilya Kaminsky – “Marina Tsvetaeva” previously printed on the website of Poetry Society of America, “New American Poets, Ilya Kaminsky.”
Liv Mammone – “First Dress”
Raymond Luczak – “DEAF RICH BOY 79” originally published in Once Upon a Twin, Gallaudet University Press, 2021
Ricky Ray – “The End of My Brother”
Rae Rose – “A Dumpster Full of Bees”
Benji Su – The Lost Finger
torrin a. greathouse – “SICK4SICK” originally appeared in Gulf Coast and was republished by the Academy of American Poets.
Camisha L. Jones – “My Hearing Loss Interrogates the World” previously appeared on Zoeglossia’s Poem of the Week series
Sean Mahoney – “This Tuesday”
Naomi Ortiz – “A Crip Love Poem”
Ava C. Cipri – “Five Seconds More” was previously published in Boulevard’s Spring 2021 Vol. 26, Nos. 2 & 3. placing as a Semi-Finalist in the Boulevard Poetry Contest for Emerging Writers judged by Bryan Byrdlong.
Stephen Lightbown – “Stairs”
Jessica Stokes – “Subplotting”
Zoe Stoller – “Not About the She Who She Wanted It to Be”
Leslie McIntosh – “Epistle: The fugue between life and death is (always) Black” first appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal.
Alayna Powell – “Ode to Myself”
Elizabeth Theriot – “Self Portrait as Tiger King” originally appeared in We are Not Your Metaphor,
Kathi Wolfe – “Things I Forget” originally appeared in Love and Kumquats: New and Selected Poems, Brickhouse Books, 2019.
Margaret Ricketts – “Porter Street Café”