Submissions open August 1! Agency vs. Determinism Poetry - Micro and flash fiction - CNF - Visual Art epistemiclit.com/submissions/

I'm grateful to @onlypoemsmag.bsky.social for reprinting my review of @toddedillard.bsky.social's RAGNARÖK AT THE FATHER-DAUGHTER DANCE (2024: @variantlit.bsky.social), first published in @phillychapbook.bsky.social. Here is an excerpt:

had a horror pantoum accepted for spooky season 🎃 I think it's the perfect form for horror. I've written a few. Throwback to "The Lighthouse," the first I attempted, first published in @cosmicdaffodil.bsky.social then reprinted in @divinationsmag.bsky.social

love to ignore all non-urgent email for a few days to reset my anticipatory-shame procrastination clock with respite before a cold plunge back in

from my review, "Rhythm and Somatic Consciousness: on AUTOCARTOGRAPHIES by @evaalterpoet.bsky.social" (2025: Eulogy Press), published in Dodo Eraser

How I start my mornings now. Stretching dough for the lunch rush

D.W. Baker@lowermelody.bsky.social · 4w ago

one year later: recently earned a promotion to a chef role. starting Monday, i'll spend 40 hours weekly making brick oven pizza. weekends & holidays off. Good benefits. Time to read, write, & be with my family. I still miss the kids I taught, but not the bullshit. Life is good

The third section of "Traversing Floodwaters In Helios' Cup," one of my linked tanka experiments, recently published in @cincinnatireview.bsky.social's miCRo series

Can anyone comment on their experience with Dancing Girl Press as either a customer or an author? I've found some negative feedback online (that they take money then don't fulfill orders or pay out), but nothing from within a year.

Have started printing out all my digital review copies of shorter works. Also appreciate receiving print copies of longer works much more than before... The marginalia process just gets much better results than typing notes on a screen, for me at least

one year later: recently earned a promotion to a chef role. starting Monday, i'll spend 40 hours weekly making brick oven pizza. weekends & holidays off. Good benefits. Time to read, write, & be with my family. I still miss the kids I taught, but not the bullshit. Life is good

D.W. Baker@lowermelody.bsky.social · last yr.

It's the first summer in 10 years that i'm not experiencing rising anxiety as the school year approaches. I'm halfway through my food service shift. I spent the manual labor outlining and beginning to compose an essay in my mind. Life after teaching, so far, continues to impress

My son just asked if I have ever played chess, which gave me occasion to bring out this artifact of my childhood in Pittsburgh. I had a 1200+ rating and spent many a Saturday on the tournament circuit before giving it up in middle school.

Here, translation choices as an example of Simic's "endless tinkering" -- an exercise in combinatoric possibility using one of the smallest canonical forms of verse: www.bopsecrets.org/gateway/pass...

D.W. Baker@lowermelody.bsky.social · last mo.

as a short form enthusiast, here is one of my favorite takes on tiny poems, from Charles Simic's 2013 interview with Granta

The final paragraph of my latest review, "The Hologram and the Hunted: on FOLLOW THIS BLOOD TO FIND A DEAD THING by Charles K. Carter" (Ferbwood Press: 2026), published by @variantlit.bsky.social

Variant Literature@variantlit.bsky.social · 4w ago

New review up on the site from @lowermelody.bsky.social "Tension between comfortable illusion and disquieting reality animates Charles K. Carter’s Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing (2026: Fernwood Press)." variantlit.com/book-review-...

New review up on the site from @lowermelody.bsky.social "Tension between comfortable illusion and disquieting reality animates Charles K. Carter’s Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing (2026: Fernwood Press)." variantlit.com/book-review-...

The Hologram and the Hunted: on Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing by Charles K. Carter

Follow This Blood to Find a Dead Thing by Charles K. Carter (Fernwood Press: 2026) reviewed D.W. Baker for Variant Lit.

variantlit.com

Check out the Contributors' Curio: buff.ly/yytUFIm! The curio houses info on our contributors' creative projects. Today our #spotlight is on D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social ! #writingcommunity #poetrycommunity #writers #authors #artists #writerslife

"Meteorite," a short poem featured in my microchapbook LOVE'S THE BURNING BOY (@fifthwheelpress.bsky.social pride series 2026), was first published & nominated for Best of the Net by @identitytheory.bsky.social

as a short form enthusiast, here is one of my favorite takes on tiny poems, from Charles Simic's 2013 interview with Granta

i am coming to believe that the tyranny of requisite superlatives, the 11/10 blurb culture, is a cultural analogue of the spread of therapy-speak. both frames of language minimize the individual's accountability for imperfection, blunting growth & development in favor of comfort

**e(i Contributor Book Review!** @thmazing.bsky.social reviews "(e)lament" by @lowermelody.bsky.social & @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social Full review here: engineidling.net/reviews Find the book here: stonecorpse.com/nat-raum-d-w...

Irina Ratushinskaya didn’t scratch her poems into a bar of soap with a matchstick, memorize them and wash away her forbidden work as a political prisoner in a Soviet labor camp for you to tell me AI is "inevitable"

** e(i Contributor Book Review! ** Here, @lowermelody.bsky.social reviews @thmazing.bsky.social's "Thubrina" (Antemoff '25)! Full review: engineidling.net/reviews ** If yr one of our contributors & would like to sign up for a Book Review Exchange fill out this form: forms.gle/vnKrBHwdFDUw... 🩷

Read @bestofthenet.bsky.social winner @altmanill0.bsky.social & finalist K-Ming Chang + @jferhow.bsky.social, @victoriawrites.bsky.social, @sofiaxaguilar.bsky.social, @dshigdon.bsky.social, @jonathankravetz.bsky.social, @natashiadeon.bsky.social & more in Vol. VI: HUNGER tinyurl.com/ExpoV6Hunger

Vol. VI: "Hunger" - Exposition Review

Vol. VI: “Hunger” confronts the question of what is essential and explores the core idea of need driven by a deep and unrelenting desire. An ache to satiate or itch to scratch — something that we ofte...

tinyurl.com

@blacklilyzine.bsky.social is open for submissions. Details below.

Happy Solstice ☀️ a snippet from my "Solstice Hymn," published last year in Amethyst Review

Celebrating father's day early since I'm working overtime tomorrow. My son (6) drew this picture of us playing Pokemon cards together. My heart is full!

the solstice is almost upon us! You know what that means! a new @identitytheory.bsky.social micro issue is coming!!!

happy June everyone!! I am so excited for this reading coming up in less than a week’s time, featuring Kevin A. Risner @mrdecember.bsky.social, Zuleyha Ozturk, Nora Rawn, & Z.H. Gill @burialmagazine.bsky.social! sign up below for this unmissable event, I look forward to seeing you there~

Friends—here are about 55 literary journals opening for submissions in July—some are open now or will close soon in June or July. Genres, themes, & guidelines vary—dates are tentative & all these should be no-fee submissions. There are more resources out there, including on here. Wish y’all well.

Check out our round-up of #poetry #chapbooks published in May 2026 by @whittlemicropress.bsky.social, Small Harbor Publishing, Bull City Press, @parlyareepress.bsky.social, Antiphony, Finishing Line Press & Bottlecap Press. #writingcommunity #poetrycommunity phillychapbookreview.org/poetry-chapb...

Poetry Chapbooks (May 2026)

Check out our round-up of poetry chapbooks published in May 2026 by Whittle Micropress, Small Harbor Publishing, Bull City Press, Parlyaree Press, Antiphony, Finishing Line Press & Bottlecap Press.

phillychapbookreview.org

not here to make enemies. not here to make friends. here to read the writing of others, to share my own, to follow the heartbeat of the work, to sharpen my opinions into durable and informed objects, to post for nobody in particular but eternity and the odd fellow traveler