Tessera

Katie

@ktonbsky.bsky.social

She/her, Poet, Writer, Co-founder & EIC of Spark to Flame @s2fjournal.bsky.social Host of On Fire Reading Series in DC: https://onfirereadingseries.neocities.org https://www.katherineschmidt.com

187 Posts390 Follower 435 Folgt

the engine(idling lit @the-engine-idling.bsky.social · last wk.

🗨️e(i 9: Collaboration is live!🗨️ Our #spotlight is on Katherine Schmidt @ktonbsky.bsky.social & Nisha Sethi! Check out their work at buff.ly/ryyERAn! Don't forget to vote for your favorite piece for our Readers' Choice Award! buff.ly/ahE8FZH

Chloe N. Clark @pintsncupcakes.bsky.social · 2w ago

It me 🥺

HAD@havehashad.com · 2w ago

New Chloe N. Clark poem at HAD today!! “How you can hold disaster in / the cup of your hand” https://www.havehashad.com/jamkn

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · 2w ago

ahhhhh

Chen Chen@chenchenwrites.bsky.social · 2w ago

Honored to have a new poem, “An Evening Discussion” in Poem-a-Day. This one’s about homophobia, societal and internalized, and different methods of responding. Also, pimples & Planet Fitness. Also, tenderness. Read without swiping + hear me read it: poets.org/poem/evening...

What if we got a gun? I whispered
from my pillow to you on yours.
I’m so against it in theory, I continued,
but in practice, & these days …
Then I burst, became
a wave of laughter, & you joined me.
We were a tidal giggle. & then I felt a huge
wobble, some cosmic shudders, perhaps from
a god with skin problems
unresolved from adolescence.
Unreleased from adolescence,
childhood, I saw how I was spiritually
still in uncomfortable overalls & overall over
none of it.

Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 2w ago

By far the poem that I send most often to writer friends and academic colleagues is Solmaz Sharif's "Patronage," whose ending is one of the few poems I can recite from memory. yalereview.org/article/patr...

I said what I meant
but I said it

in velvet. I said it in feathers.
And so one poet reminded me

Remember what you are to them.

Poodle, I said.

And remember what they are to you.

*

Meat.

Emma ✌️🦀@crabmoney.bsky.social · 3w ago

this is going to be my first time ever doing an irl reading! come through!

Katie@ktonbsky.bsky.social · 3w ago

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED to the first ever On Fire Reading Series event 7 pm August 26 <Wednesday> at Sinners and Saints in DC. Featuring an amazing lineup of: @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social, Yasmine Bolden, @crabmoney.bsky.social, @submorstua.bsky.social, and The Workshop Prince.

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · 3w ago

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · last mo.

ok just go ahead and f me up why don’t you (/complementary) @yesyesbooks.bsky.social

Dead Boys in Space by Sara Youngblood Gregory

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · last mo.

Update update update: just recommended that the 14th street location of @solidstatebooksdc.bsky.social (shout out to them they are awesome) stock Plastic, Prism, Void because SELF-QUOTE “it is changing my life.”

Katie@ktonbsky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Update update: the way I SEE myself in this book is scary. I am also forcing it on everyone I know. Read this book. @littlepuss.net

Emma ✌️🦀@crabmoney.bsky.social · last mo.

Are you a queer writer in the DC area looking to be part of a new small reading series? Go to onfirereadingseries.neocities.org and let my friend @ktonbsky.bsky.social know you’re interested!!

The web site of onfirereadingseries

onfirereadingseries.neocities.org

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · last mo.

I am creating a queer reading series in DC and you are all invited: onfirereadingseries on Instagram and onfirereadingseries.neocities.org First event TBA. Please share!

The web site of onfirereadingseries

onfirereadingseries.neocities.org

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

So excited to have two collaborative poems with my friend Nisha out today!!! Check out this whole issue 🔥🔥

the engine(idling lit@the-engine-idling.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🗨️ e(i #9: Collaboration is live! 🗨️ Collaboration is a testament to community & creative experimentation! It's free to read, download & share online: buff.ly/ryyERAn Print copy available for purchase: buff.ly/PjaIlBn & vote for your fave piece for our Readers' Choice Award! buff.ly/9DlHF33 ⬇️

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

How am I reacclimating after @barrelhouse.bsky.social writers camp? I’m not. Thanks for asking.

Barrelhouse @barrelhouse.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Camp has occurred

Horrible quality photo of camp fireworks

Ancillary Review of Books @ancillaryreviewofbooks.org · 2mo ago

Battlestar Ataxia: Vanessa Wolosz reviews Violet Allen's PLASTIC, PRISM, VOID (@littlepuss.net)

Battlestar Ataxia: Review of Violet Allen’s Plastic, Prism, Void

Vanessa Wolosz Under Review:Plastic, Prism, Void. Violet Allen. Littlepuss Press, May 2026. It’s possible that Violet Allen is totally allergic to binaries, to stability and boundaries and the very…

ancillaryreviewofbooks.org

LittlePuss Press @littlepuss.net · 2mo ago

WE ARE STILL BASKING IN THE JOY OF SATURDAY NIGHT Thank you so much to our readers Gwen Aube @astoehr.bsky.social and @blipstress.bsky.social for LIGHTING UP the stage and thank YOU to everyone who came out to share the joy of transsexual books!

Anathema Magazine @anathemamagazine.bsky.social · 2mo ago

THE TIME HAS COME ✨ Anathema is OPEN to submissions from June 20th—July 20th! We’re looking for speculative works by queer creators of color. Send us your best, your weirdest, & your queerest work! We are proud to be paying a professional SFWA rate. 🎉 So excited to see what you have to offer! 💜

Anathema: Spec from the Margins is now OPEN for submissions from June 20th to July 20th! We’re looking for speculative fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art by queer creators of color! We pay a professional SFWA rate! Check the link in bio for submission guidelines!

Angel L🏳️‍⚧️@angelvleal.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Hey fellow trans friends, I can't wait to get fucked up with some weird ass trans horror ❤️give me the stories you finished and were like "nah, I love this..but it's fucking weird and unsellable." And you leave it in a doc for 3 years. Please surprise me & make me feel gross & cry. I want it bad

OTHERSIDE@othersidespec.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Portals #1 opens to submissions on June 22nd at 12:01 am Eastern! Co-editors Jess and Angel are looking for speculative horror fiction and poetry by trans/nonbinary authors. GUIDELINES: hybrispress.moksha.io/publication/... Find their wishlists below, plus more details in the quoted thread! (1/3)

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Update update: the way I SEE myself in this book is scary. I am also forcing it on everyone I know. Read this book. @littlepuss.net

Katie@ktonbsky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Update: this book is making me feel so much / takes my breath away, to the point where I have to start-stop-start-stop reading it. Because if I read too much at once I may combust.

Spark to Flame @s2fjournal.bsky.social · 2mo ago

“A Brother’s Gotta Tell Me Goodbye” by Ryan McCarty (Flame) and Dylan Night (Spark) made me cry when I read it. “I squeezed all my hope into a stone and prayed it / toward the lake,...” Check it out, page 5: www.s2fjournal.com/assets/Issue... #poetry #litmag #writingcommunity

Black photo with neon line drawing of a book. Art by graphic designer Renato Paucar.

fifth wheel press @fifthwheelpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

issue 6 of GARLAND will be guest-edited by @sadeebee.bsky.social fifthwheelpress.com/garlandsubs

GARLAND submissions — fifth wheel press

fifthwheelpress.com

Taco Bell Quarterly @tacobellquarterly.org · 2mo ago

The trick is you just say fuck it, whatever, in any situation

upfromsumdirt @upfromsumdirt.blacksky.app · 2mo ago

danez smith SAY IT WITH YOUR WHOLE BLACK MOUTH

say it with your whole black mouth

say it with your whole black mouth: i am innocent & if you are not innocent, say this: i am worthy
of forgiveness, of breath after breath. i tell you this: i let blue eyes dress me in guilt
walked around stores convinced the very skin of my palm was stolen. what good has it brought?
days filled flinching thinking the sirens were reaching for me. & when the sirens were mine
did i not make peace with God? so many white people are alive
because we know how to control ourselves. how many times have we died on a whim
wielded like gallows in their sun-shy hands? here, standing in my own body, i say: next time
they murder us for the crime of their imaginations i don't know what i'll do.
i did not come to preach of peace for that's not the hunted's duty.

i came here to say what i can't say without my name being added to a list
what my mother fears i will say what she wishes to say herself

i came here to say
i can't bring myself to write it down
sometimes i dream of pulling an apology from a pig's collared neck & wake up crackin' up
if i dream of setting fire to cul-de-sacs i wake chained to the bed
i don't like thinking about doing to white folks what white folks done to us
when i do
can't say
i don't dance
o my people
how long will we
reach for God
instead of something
sharper?

ANMLY @anmlymag.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Oh this shit, again??? Read some autistic poems, they're really good.

ANMLY@anmlymag.bsky.social · 10mo ago

"In the words of contributor [sarah] Cavar, who was gracious enough to write a more proper introduction to this folio—“thank you, tylenol.” Which is to say, I’m glad we are who we are. And fuck anyone who has a problem with that." —Sarah Clark anmly.org/autistic-pro...

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Fuck

HAD@havehashad.com · 2mo ago

"Sexual Orientation • Heterosexual • Homosexual • Okay, so it’s 1999 and The Mummy is in theaters and everyone is falling in love with men and women and eyeliner as thick as the lid of a sarcophagus..." today from Frances Klein! https://www.havehashad.com/lk1uf

June 16, 2026
Demographics
Frances Klein
Sexual Orientation (select one)

Heterosexual
Homosexual
Okay, so it’s 1999 and The Mummy is in theaters and everyone is falling in love with men and women and eyeliner as thick as the lid of a sarcophagus and all the teens are doodling on their notebooks in loopy cursive, Mr. Rachel Weisz’s Belted Tanktop, and Mrs. Brendan Fraser’s Center-Part Bangs, and Arnold Vosloo’s Shaved Head and the small towns of America aren’t so small when you sit in the dark with desert stretching past the horizon, and we all see the movie every weekend, tickets are cheap if you smuggle in your own snacks, cargo pants pockets stuffed with Skittles, and the ticket taker doesn’t notice because he’s making eyes at the cardboard cutout of Brendan, we all are, we all want to be all four lips and two tongues inside the big kiss at the end, want to be every locust buzzing out of Imhotep’s unhinged jaws, we have no words for what we feel, know only that something inside us h

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Update: this book is making me feel so much / takes my breath away, to the point where I have to start-stop-start-stop reading it. Because if I read too much at once I may combust.

Katie@ktonbsky.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The way I’m already obsessed with this two pages in my goodness 🔥 @littlepuss.net @blipstress.bsky.social

Photo of “Plastic, Prism, Void” by violet allen from Little Puss Press

Spark to Flame @s2fjournal.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Issue Seven of S2F is published! www.s2fjournal.com/assets/Issue... In this issue, we have two co-authored poems and eleven poems created through our "spark-to-flame" process. Thank you to the cover artist, Adam (see more of his work on Instagram at @digitallycomposed)

Cover image of Spark to Flame Issue Seven by Adam. Person with white pants and wings at Pride 2025, Washington, DC.

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

happy s2f publication eve to all who celebrate (me) !!!!

Katie @ktonbsky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I’m seated 🔥 Picked up “Embodied Exegesis” edited by @robotleblanc.bsky.social a while ago from @neonhemlock.bsky.social and am just now getting into it. Holy shit I love this, is my main reaction right now.

Inside of “Embodied Exegesis” edited by Ann LeBlanc showing the first page of the note from the editor. It reads:

Cis cyberpunk is dead! Long live transfem cyberpunk!

Then there’s a quote from Lillian Boyd, Twitter, June 26th, 2020: “tbh if you’re writing transhumanist cyberpunk and you’re not doing doing stuff with gender at all, you’re a cowardly little baby. You’re like a baby who’s softer and more cowardly than the other babies. The other babies fucking bully you about your soft little baby hands, which type stiff like ‘Jax Colevision’s body was like 80% can opener and he never, ever thought about having dome titties’ I know that you’re a baby who hasn’t totally grasped the concept of object permanence thing yet with your li’l chicken tender fists, but the cyberpunk metropolis still thrums with weird, scary genitals even when you’re determined to look away from it”.

LittlePuss Press @littlepuss.net · 2mo ago

🐑The Lammy's are right around the corner and GENDERTRASH FROM HELL is a finalist for the Transgender Nonfiction Award! We are so proud to have this work up for a Lammy among the other HEAVY HITTING nominees! @lambdaliterary.org #lammys2026

Tom Snarsky @tomsnarsky.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Peter Hamm, tr. Helmut Bonheim

Translated
from the German
by
Helmut Bonheim

DON’T BOTHER

don’t bother about my junk about
my miscalculated screams dreams or

misbirths don’t bother about my
sentence fragments brides movies hotelbills

you agreed to that memory we
called love were agreeable

with our hurried bodies don’t
bother about my debts poems

or my friends bent on making
history don’t bother that we’re

naked to the bone and I can
forget that little pile of monstrous

that I am