To celebrate #NationalPoetryMonth2024 here are 4 anthologies my poetry has appeared in and that I would point readers to.
1.
Among the Leaves: Queer Male Poets on the Midwestern Experience (2012)
In Among the Leaves, 18 queer male poets share stories what it means to live in the Midwest. We learn what it's like for them to play football and come up short. We feel their lingering effects of bullying. We experience the undeniable power of seasons affecting their moods as they ache for a meaningful connection. We learn what it means to celebrate in spite of the odds against them. But more than anything, we discover anew through their poems the redemptive power of love and renewal among the leaves growing and falling.
https://www.amazon.com/Among-Leaves-Queer-Midwestern-Experience/dp/097988165X
2.
Lovejets: Queer Male Poets on 200 Years of Walt Whitman (2019)
Where the heck have you been, Walt Whitman?
Walt Whitman, author of Leaves of Grass, was born in 1819. The Stonewall riots happened 150 years later. On the bicentennial of Whitman’s birth and the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, over 80 poets pay homage to not only Walt Whitman, but also to queer poets and queer poetry and the vast and various events, revolutions public and private, that have shaken our world since 1819: who we are, where we are, where we have been, and where we might be going in the 21st century.
“This wide and impressive range of poetry echoing the spirit of Walt Whitman and his literary forebears demonstrates the essential embrace of community that we’ve always needed to feel whole with ourselves and among others, especially now during these tumultuous times. Celebrating what had to be largely hidden from view during Whitman’s day, the living queer male poets who grace the pages trumpet a glorious and unforgettable spectacle of passion and compassion.”
—Richard Blanco, Presidential Inaugural Poet
https://www.amazon.com/Lovejets-Queer-Poets-Years-Whitman/dp/1941960138
3.
SWEETER VOICES STILL: An LGBTQ Anthology From Middle America (2020)
Edited by Ryan Schuessler and Kevin Whiteneir, Jr.
The middle of America—the Midwest, Appalachia, the Rust Belt, the Great Plains, the Upper South—is a queer place, and it always has been. The queer people of its cities, farms, and suburbs do not exist only to serve as “blue dots” within “red states.” Every story about the kid from Iowa who steps off the bus in Manhattan, ready to “finally” live, is a story about the kid who was already living in Iowa. Sweeter Voices Still is about that kid and has been written by people like them. This collection features queer voices you might recognize—established and successful writers and thinkers—and others you might not—people who don’t think of themselves as writers at all. In this book, transgender women and men are women and men, “they” and “them” can be singular pronouns, Black lives matter, sex work is work, and you don’t have to go to a gay bar to be gay—and it’s okay if you do, too. You’ll find sex, love, and heartbreak and all the beings we meet along the way: trees, deer, cicadas, sturgeon. Most of all, you'll find real people.
Featuring a foreword by Northwestern University professor Doug Kiel.
https://beltpublishing.com/products/sweeter-voices-still
4.
The Alien Buddha Loves You (2023)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMXDJVQ5?fbclid=IwAR0-vZMIUUSkcHz5UY-XXK_5tECsWCshOFLeb20m4frKURDuTQPakjOYiVA
