Meet Our New Intern: Caylin Moore

When I was entering middle school, my parents filed for bankruptcy. My father worked a manual labor job from which he had to take a great deal of time off due to back surgery. Since his was the primary income of the household, our family struggled substantially. I mean this in the financial and emotional sense. Financial strain has a way of causing relationship problems, and for my parents it was no different. They began to drink and fight. I, as a young girl already struggling through puberty and the increasingly complicated social scene of adolescence, developed a plethora of mental health issues. I became bulimic, depressed, and anxious. I began to self harm. However, I am the stereotypical oldest daughter, and I behaved accordingly in the midst of my struggles. I maintained a GPA above a 4.0 with a schedule full of honors and AP level classes, and I was involved in many extracurricular activities. Staying busy was one method of coping with what I was going through. Reading was another. I had loved books since I was a small child, but this period of my life made me view them as an escape. Books represented the fantasy of what I believed my life could eventually become even when my current reality was far from desirable.

Let’s fast forward to my high school graduation. I had started to experience some of the more extreme symptoms of having an eating disorder, and I had come to the realization that the way I was living was not sustainable. I started recovery during the summer after graduation, and I geared up for my first semester of college as a psychology major. I wanted to use my career to help people through the same mental health issues I had experienced. Little did I know that I would switch majors and career paths multiple times throughout the years.

After completing two years of coursework for a psychology degree, I transferred schools to pursue a ministry degree. While working toward this degree, I interned at a local church. This was the same church that I accepted a job at post grad. It quickly became clear to me that ministry was not a career I could do for the rest of my life. Growing up in a southern religious family meant that I had been raised by people with very conservative views, and I simply did not agree with these views anymore. The same views I was raised with were the views being promoted by the church I worked at, and the cognitive dissonance of being liberal in a conservative environment led me to feel that I was not helping people at all. In fact, it felt like I was actively contributing to the harm of marginalized communities.

I enrolled in a graduate program to study social work. It seemed like it would be a simple course correction. I would enter a field similar to that which I had originally intended to when I started college, and I would help people in a more hands-on way. A few quarters into the program, it was time for an internship in the field. This internship made me aware of how often I would be required to work with people who grappled with substance use, and I knew I couldn’t do it. Even if I could, it would take an extreme toll on my mental health due to the history of alcoholism in my family. I was at a loss for what to do next.

Every decision I had made had been driven by my desire to use my life to help people, but none of my choices felt right. I left the graduate program and my job at the church. I then did something I had not done in a very long time. I took time to sit still. I thought about what I loved and what had helped me through hard times. Then I remembered the young girl who always had her nose in a book. I remembered the girl who disappeared into stories that made her believe in a better tomorrow.

I now know that I want to be a part of bringing those stories into the world. I want to help publish literature that gives others hope. Because the first step to making the world a better place is hoping that it can be.

Caylin Moore (she/her) is currently pursuing a graduate level certificate in book publishing from Pace University, and SAFTA is her first internship in the publishing industry. Her previous work includes copyediting, social media marketing, and project management. She hopes to use these skills and those gained during this internship for a job in either editorial or marketing one day. As someone who has often felt seen by the stories she reads, she is passionate about bringing stories into the world that help others feel that same comfort. She is planning her wedding to Nathan, the love of her life, for next August. In addition to her fiancé, she also loves romance novels, murder mysteries, musical theatre, and her pets Stitch and Oreo. Stitch is a hound dog named after objectively the best Disney character of all time, and she will hear no debate on that matter.

Project Bookshelf: Marian Kohng

As of the moment, my bookshelf is overflowing. It came to the point where my books are now thoughtfully and meticulously stacked on top of each other. My main shelf is located behind my bed, so I make sure to place paperbacks, as opposed to hardcovers, at the top of the pile just in case it falls on me while I’m sleeping (they’re actually very stable). Even though this may be an inconvenient spot for a bookshelf, I personally love it. I’ve had this shelf in this precise location for years and never wanted to change the layout because of the fact that I can conveniently reach behind me and choose my next read.

I also consider the books on my Kindle and the ones I borrow on Libby as part of my personal library, but here is a peek into my physical bookshelf, shown above. This is just a glimpse into some of my favorite books. I love to read anything and everything, but I do particularly love fantasy and romance. One of the most magical things about any type of story is that you can experience a different life every time you read. That feeling of living someone else’s life through words is irreplaceable. You aren’t just experiencing these characters’ lives but also the authors’. Each word was intentionally placed on the page to create this amazing story that can bring out so many different emotions at once. I felt like I was getting a warm hug when reading Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez or the fact that I was definitely spiraling during Powerless by Lauren Roberts. I get to bask in these beautiful, powerful feelings through each unique read.

This picture above consists of my favorite poetry books and the books I read for Literature in middle and high school. Literature class was always my favorite subject because I loved analyzing the small details of a text and then learning about the different perspectives of my classmates. I loved the discussions we had and how the debates became so passionate that we were on the edges of our seats waiting to share our opinions. That buzz of excitement in the air when we came into class after reading the ending of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde the night before is something I still remember. Everyone was talking about it and I felt a sense of community with my classmates. As you can probably tell by the spines, I had heavily annotated each one and I was always that person who wanted to highlight everything because a book was so good. Now these stories live on my bookshelf, where I can reread them. It’s always so fun for me to go back to my annotations and see what thoughts changed as compared to the ones I had when I was a teen.

Books are like a magical device, not only because they teleport me into different worlds, but because they also hold some of my most precious memories and I can play them back like a film reel. When I look at my well-loved books and go back to my thoughts I wrote in my reading journal, I can relive the feelings of experiencing a story for the first, second, or third time. I would remember staying up late reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, even though I had classes at 8 in the morning, or how I was sighing dreamily while reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Books tuck these memories warmly into their pages, and I get to reminisce about all the different versions of me in each book.

Marian Kohng (she/her/hers) is a proud Korean American and an Editorial Intern at Sundress Publications and a Traffic Copy Editor at a local news station in Tucson, AZ. She also has a Bachelor’s in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science and a Master’s in Marketing. She loves to get lost in a good book and will read just about anything, including the back of the shampoo bottle.

Sundress Reads: Review of Corazón Coalesced

Sundress Reads black-and-white logo with a sheep sitting on a stool next to the words "Sundress Reads." The sheep is wearing glasses and holding a cup filled with a hot drink in one hoof and holding an open book in the other.
Body parts and internal organs are scattered along the green page of the cover. The hands are gloved in blue latex gloves. "Corazón Coalesced" is at the top and the author's name "Alexis Jaimes" is at the bottom of the cover.

Corazón Coalesced (Bottlecap Press, 2025), Alexis Jaimes’s debut chapbook, is abounding with themes of adolescence and maturity, examination of self and society, radiating a stubborn and passionate love and lust. Full of enjambments and metaphors, Jaimes’s poetry is both appealing to the eye and the creative mind. With the use of unconventional punctuation paired with accessible yet intricate metaphors, Jaimes caters to a broad array of readers. Corazón Coalesced is rich with Mexican immigrant cultural references and vernacular, nostalgic familial lessons, and the complexities of relationships and attraction.

The opening poem floats in the middle of an expanse of white, and assembles its 4 stanzas into the form of a person with a hourglass figure in a tutu. The title, “Home,” acts as the person’s head, while their feet are composed of the words, “He did”(Jaimes 1). In between, Jaimes paints a picture of Tortilla chips, the brown faces of his parents who “carried me once” (1). “Round a square table,” Jaimes details his mother, sister and brother, with his father as the focal point of the poem “boasting he never missed them too much”(1). This is an early seed planted informing the reader of Jaimes’s father’s lack of time spent in the household. 

This seed sprouts in “The Poem Against Banda” when it is revealed to readers that “papi spent entire nights face down toilet bowls or utility buckets” (Jaimes 12). After reading this poem, I learned that Banda is a type of Mexican music featuring brass instruments and a strong beat driving the song and eliciting the need to dance! This poem out loud possesses a natural rhythm and lyrical quality that match this musical genre. After listening, I thought this music was quite cheery, but upon reaching the end of the poem it was clear this uplifting music represents the opposite for Jaimes when he details that “it’s not music it is manipulation” (12). This poem makes the link clear between music and its ability to trigger memories. Jaimes reveals themes that haunted him through his childhood, like an “alcoholic father & enabling mother” (12). This poem reflects how the familial lack of trust for his father spiked after affairs, violence, and hiding true identities. Additionally, this poem outlines how the American dream can feel unattainable and unglorious in practice. 

My favorite poem in this chapbook is “Finding out they were the one.” It illustrates two people in a relationship whose lives are growing to fit one another, matching each other’s routines, and becoming more comfortable with one another. Jaimes writes, 

“place their shoes next to mine but it was when they would read a story near the window while I sat in bed sipping coffee— sharing the static silence— that I realized it.” (5)

This poem ends on a cliffhanger like many relationships do. This poem was personal for me because of my sweet girlfriend, and caused me to reflect and appreciate how much work we have done to make our lives do exactly what the poem depicts.

After the section of lustful poems, this chapbook moves onto themes of direct oppression. Three stand out in particular, the first being, “finding freedom from your abusers is not cowardness.” This poem has the potential to affirm an abundance of people globally who experience varying forms of oppression. The last lines of the poem encapsulate exactly why:

“i will live & that’s my greatest revenge 

my joy will strangle all of you i have left with a smile.” (Jaimes 14)

A natural human instinct under threat and disrespect is to turn to resentment. Subsequently, a natural solution to defeating a grudge is bringing pain upon your abuser. This holds many back from making new progress following abuse. The notion that continuing to live on without your abusers is enough of a punishment, sequesters the need for vengeance, and is inspiring, relieving, and additionally, motivating. 

The second and third poems in the triad that address oppression in a creative and head-on fashion are “Tiger Stripes” and “gentrifying times (bleaching the brown).” The former bounces between Spanish and English, revealing a skin condition of the author’s, which he calls “Zihuatanejo white sand to eroded Guanajuato soil” (Jaimes 16). This poem builds a bridge between how this skin condition elevates the invalidity of Jaimes’s identity, and how it’s layered in American and Mexican politics. This is apparent in lines such as, “Born an imposter from birth: pocho or illegal either / neither / both” (Jaimes 16). The last line of “Tiger Stripes” is full of self empowerment. Jaimes writes, “This body is adorned with perfect imperfections” (16). This connected well with me. As a young brown girl, I was ashamed of my skin color for many years when living in a small predominantly white town in Vermont in my teenage years. 

The latter poem, “gentrifying times (bleaching the brown),” is a wonderful follow up to “Tiger Stripes.” Discussing gentrification, this poem brought me from away Mexico and to Harlem, New York City, where I spent my earlier years. The posh new owners of the barbershop in the Mexican neighborhood that Jaimes describes caused me to think of how my favorite locally run grocery store, The Wild Olive, closed when an over the top Whole Foods moved in down the street. Additionally, I was caused to reflect on how the white women that raised me, whom I love so much, are gentrifiers. And even though I’m a brown girl, I am still a product of them. Am I a gentrifyer too? 

Corazón Coalesced is brimming with cultural references from the Mexican immigrant experience, evoking nostalgic family lessons while confronting generational trauma, the nuances of skin color, and the realities of discrimination. This chapbook is great for teenagers looking to improve their poetry comprehension and analytical skills. Jaimes’s poetry is educational on what it means to grow up as a Mexican immigrant in a plethora of unreliable systems of power and distrust that are only becoming more common in our world today. The chapbook closes with the line “I know: / I will remain” (Jaimes 26). When Jaimes says he will remain, he makes it clear that these experiences have only spiked his resilience and power, rather than suppress it. 

Corazón Coalesced is available from Bottlecap Press

Sophie Canon is a senior comedic arts major at Emerson College. Sophie is the main character and audiobook narrator of the middle grade fiction called The Barking Puppy written by her godmother, Lori Lobenstine. She contributes her lived experiences, as well as her ear for youth dialogue and blend of human and dog humor. Sophie also uses sketch and standup comedy to promote the discussion of racism. 

Meet Our New Intern: Ana Mourant

Ana Mourant, a young woman, with blonde hair and light skin, wearing an explorer's hat, a short-sleeve shirt, shorts, and sandals, walking on a rope bridge high up in a forest

Growing up in rural Alaska, my family lived a largely subsistence lifestyle, which is the term we use when a family obtains most of its food from the wild rather than a store. We foraged for berries, fished for salmon, and hunted moose. We didn’t have a TV when I was young, nor computers, mobile phones, or even running water. Books, however, we did have. My family’s village had a small library, with many more books than people. Only about thirty people lived in the village year-round (yes, thirty, not thirty thousand), and our small library had around ten thousand books. With this book-to-people ratio, it’s no wonder that I became an introverted bibliophile.

People began to attract my attention as a teenager when I became interested in languages and met several foreign exchange students after we moved to the city. I use the word “city” loosely, since Juneau is a small town from most of the world’s point of view. But for us, Juneau was considered the “big city,” with its population of thirty thousand (yes, thirty thousand, instead of just thirty). I took linguistics, French, and Latin in school, and learned a bit of various other languages, including Greek, Italian, Mandarin, and Cantonese. My family decided to host an exchange student, after which I launched myself off on my own series of exchange programs to Greece, France, and Czechia, and spent my junior year of high school abroad in Germany (adding fluent German to my list).

In college, I knew I wanted work with literature, and initially thought I would become a writer. From my extensive language background (at that point I could speak five languages, to varying degrees), I knew I wanted to procure a thorough education not just in English literature, but the English language as well, from a linguistic point of view. I found the program I wanted which offered a major in English Language and Literature, with a minor in Professional Writing. I completed my BA and was also awarded membership to Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society.

College life was fun, mine especially so since I had the pleasure of studying English and global literature written from the beginning of the Old English language up to the present. Still, my heart has to get off the pages and into the woods sometimes. No matter what country I’m in or how many buildings I’m temporarily surrounded by, I always make time to return to the forest, the mountains, or whatever form of nature I can get to. I also make time to listen to Indigenous storytellers whenever the opportunity arises. Growing up in Alaska, I was immersed in both Indigenous as well as Euro-American culture. When I wasn’t out playing in the forest or reading, I was often listening to others tell their stories. In Alaska, we’re lucky that live storytelling is popular, both in casual settings as well as large ticketed events in cities. During the latter half of my college years, I began to realize that my true passion lies not in writing my own creations, but in helping others to tell their stories.

When I discovered editing, I knew that this was the path for me: helping others tell their stories. My mind is analytical, my background is strong in language, and my heart is with storytellers who have braved the wilds of life and have enthralling experiences to share. I found that I enjoy helping others more than writing my own pieces from scratch. I love the process of analysis. I love seeing the forest through the trees and helping the story shine. I love getting a rough manuscript and working as a team with the author to form it, see it grow, and watch it bloom.

After I finished my undergraduate program, I pursued this passion and went to grad school at the University of Washington to obtain my editing certificate. I graduated in June 2025, not only with my editing certificate, but also with a certificate in storytelling and content strategy. I am now equipped to help authors find their voice and bring stories to the world.

During my time at the University of Washington, and since then, I’ve edited books, news articles, and websites. I’ve worked with well-known authors, first-time authors, international journalists, and businesses around the world. I enjoy editing a wide variety of material, my favorites being nature writing and anything by or about Indigenous Peoples. As of this writing, besides my editorial internship with Sundress Publications, I’m the copyeditor for journalist Marcie Sillman, and I continue to freelance edit for a wide variety of publishing houses, authors, and businesses. My three favorite authors are Robert Macfarlane and Tristan Gooley, both nature writers, and Wes Henry, whose wonderful prose makes me smile every time I work on his humorous teaching memoir manuscript (in the substantive editing phase as of this writing).

Stay tuned for my Sundress Reads book reviews coming up in the next couple months, as well as my Sundress TikToks. I’m so excited to work with Sundress Publications and happy to be a part of this team!

Ana Mourant is an editorial intern for Sundress Publications and a recent graduate of the University of Washington’s editing program. She holds a Certificate in Editing as well as a Certificate in Storytelling and Content Strategy, and a BA in English Language and Literature, with a minor in Professional Writing. Ana conducts manuscript evaluations, developmental edits, structural edits, line edits, copyedits, proofreads, and beta reads, as well as authenticity and sensitivity readings for Indigenous Peoples content. Ana loves nature writing and Indigenous cultures, and, when she’s not working, is often out in the wilderness tracking animals, Nordic skiing, or just enjoying nature.

Stirring Call for Submissions

Stirring: A Literary Collection is seeking submissions on a rolling basis for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. They share, “Our goal is to elevate writing and art. We like to see creative work from all writing genres and a variety of visual art media. We are continually striving to publish underserved voices, POC, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized beings. We do not consider translations or previously published pieces.”

Guidelines and what Stirring is looking for in each genre are listed below:

Fiction: Submit no more than 5,000 words total but each piece can be between 250-2,500 words. We are looking for short fiction that bursts with sensory detail and places the reader fully in a time and location rooted in diverse perspectives. We love distinctive places, vivid sensory textures, character-driven tension, cultural specificity, and stories outside the mainstream. Send to Shaun Turner stirring.fiction@gmail.com.                      

Nonfiction: Submit no more than 5,000 words total but can be multiple smaller/flash pieces. We are looking for creative nonfiction with a personal connection to a broader social narrative. Creative pieces that intersect with hybrid presentations of narrative are always appreciated. Send to Ada Woofard stirring.nonfiction@gmail.com.

Poetry: Up to five poems that can be connected as a series or standalone. We are looking for pieces that question the self, challenge forms, examine identity, engage with a solid emotional core, and attention to craft. We always enjoy a poem that can make us laugh and cry and think. Send to Luci Roller stirring.poetry@gmail.com.

Visual art: Up to ten visual files that can be connected as a series or standalone. We are looking for art that deals with painting and photography mediums, but collage is also welcome. We enjoy work that incorporates the natural world and also incorporates bold visuals. Send to Stephanie Phillips stirring.artphoto@gmail.com.

If you have any questions, please contact Stirring here.

Sundress Academy for the Arts Presents September Poetry Xfit

The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present Poetry Xfit hosted by Rachel Mekdeci. This generative workshop event will take place on Sunday, September 28th, from 2 to 4 pm EST via Zoom. Join us at the link tiny.utk.edu/sundress with the password “safta”.

Poetry Xfit isn’t about throwing tires or heavy ropes, but the idea of confusing our muscles is the same. You will receive ideas, guidelines, and more as part of this generative workshop series in order to complete three poems in two hours. A new set of prompts will be provided after the writers have written collaboratively for thirty minutes. The goal is to create material that can be later modified and transformed into artwork rather than producing flawless final versions. The event is open to prose authors as well!

Rachel Mekdeci (she/her) is a foul-mouthed, mixed-race, Caribbean-immigrant Taurus with a bleeding heart passionate for the arts. With her undergraduate degree in English Literature from the University of Tennessee, she takes every opportunity to write, talk, and yell about queer studies and intersectional feminism. Her number one mission in life is to further the reach of the arts and maybe own a house

While this is a free event, donations can be made to the Sundress Academy for the Arts here: https://sundress-publications.square.site/product/donate-to-sundress/107?cs=true

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Power Point by Jane Muschenetz

This selection, chosen by guest editor Alexis Ivy, is from Power Point by Jane Muschenetz (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2024).

poem printed on color paper - purple to pink to creme ombre

MAKE BELIEF

Let us pretend, just for this lifetime, that we are not angels
that we have no wings, no powers beyond the ordinary
to perceive, to dance with universes, that our senses
(being only human) cannot taste possibility and time
as anything but linear and fixed, cannot mix truths
bursting in and out of existence, varying in color,
wavelengths, and dimension—infinite, nuanced,
burning with intention, the multifaceted
exponential potential of all things,
eludes us! Let us despair and fret
over our impediments and
limitations, as if they
were reality and
immortality—

     Did you forget already?
     Did you pretend too well?

Jane Muschenetz Recognized in 2023 by San Diego County for excellence in poetry performance, Jane has appeared on KPBS Midday Edition and in numerous publications. Her debut chapbook, All the Bad Girls Wear Russian Accents (Kelsay Books, 2023), won the 2024 California Press Women Communications Prize in Creative Verse and the 2024 San Diego Writers Festival Short Poetry Collection of the Year. An emerging writer and artist, Jane’s additional honors include multiple Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominations and The Good Life Review Honeybee Poetry Prize (2022). Connect with Jane and more of her work at www.PalmFrondZoo.com

Alexis Ivy is a 2018 recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Poetry. She is the author of Romance with Small-Time Crooks (BlazeVOX [books], 2013), and Taking the Homeless Census (Saturnalia Books, 2020) which won the 2018 Saturnalia Editors Prize. She is co-editor of Essential Voices: A COVID-19 Anthology (West Virginia University Press, 2023). A recent resident of the Sundress Academy for the Arts, she lives in her hometown Boston, working as an advocate for the homeless, and teaching in the PoemWorks community.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Power Point by Jane Muschenetz

This selection, chosen by guest editor Alexis Ivy, is from Power Point by Jane Muschenetz (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2024).

GENDER NEUTRAL

They’re studying the effects of gendering on language19
and cultural norms,
how the moon (luna) is feminine in Spanish and Russian
but masculine in German (Mond)
how this alters
our perception of its qualifications—
whether we believe it to be
beautiful, changeable (f) or
stoic, abrupt (m)—
over 1000 Google links discuss at length

The moon is the moon.

Some promote doing away with sex, but I
(having learned gender from my Mother Tongue
and feeling its lack like a missing limb when I try bending English)
am fascinated, mouth-hungry
to embrace each understanding of our world,
uncomfortable and broken as it is
learning to speak again and again.
There is something revealing about seeing the moon
through every lexiconic, scientific, and artistic notion
and still not having enough
words to fill the sky

19. S. Briggs, “Do gender fair languages affect gender equality? Here's the research,” Berlitz, July 2022, https://www.berlitz.com/blog/does-language-affectgender-equality

Jane Muschenetz Recognized in 2023 by San Diego County for excellence in poetry performance, Jane has appeared on KPBS Midday Edition and in numerous publications. Her debut chapbook, All the Bad Girls Wear Russian Accents (Kelsay Books, 2023), won the 2024 California Press Women Communications Prize in Creative Verse and the 2024 San Diego Writers Festival Short Poetry Collection of the Year. An emerging writer and artist, Jane’s additional honors include multiple Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominations and The Good Life Review Honeybee Poetry Prize (2022). Connect with Jane and more of her work at www.PalmFrondZoo.com

Alexis Ivy is a 2018 recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Poetry. She is the author of Romance with Small-Time Crooks (BlazeVOX [books], 2013), and Taking the Homeless Census (Saturnalia Books, 2020) which won the 2018 Saturnalia Editors Prize. She is co-editor of Essential Voices: A COVID-19 Anthology (West Virginia University Press, 2023). A recent resident of the Sundress Academy for the Arts, she lives in her hometown Boston, working as an advocate for the homeless, and teaching in the PoemWorks community.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Dark Beds by Diana Whitney

This selection, chosen by guest editor Alexis Ivy, is from Dark Beds by Diana Whitney (June Road Press, 2023).

Fusion

The sun isn’t hot
because it’s burning.
Ask your daughter

the real reason, ask her
what a star’s made of,
how hot it is, how hot

she’s supposed to be
starting in sixth grade. Count
the evidence: your stolen

mascara, your missing
lace thong, cut with scissors
and sewn crooked up the side,

your red tweezers, your Venus
razor, bathroom tools
weaponized in the quest

for hotness—wide-eyed
and hairless, flawless
and bright. Middle school

is its own galaxy.
You can’t imagine
the scrutiny, the endless

reactions, dense agitation
at 30 million degrees.
So much pressure

at the core creates heat
and light. She wants to flare
out of her skin, release

pure energy, transform
from flesh to magnetic field:
something blazing

and magnificent, orbiting
nothing.

Diana Whitney writes across genres with a focus on feminism, motherhood, and sexuality. Dark Beds, her second poetry collection, was published by June Road Press in 2023 and named a finalist for the Poetry Society of Virginia’s North American Book Award. She is also the editor of the bestselling anthology You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves (2021), winner of the Claudia Lewis Award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, Glamour, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. Her first book, Wanting It, won the Rubery Book Award, and her third collection, Girl Trouble, is forthcoming from CavanKerry Press in 2026. Diana has received numerous grants for her writing, including from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Vermont Arts Council, and holds an MFA in poetry from New England College. A feminist activist in her Vermont hometown and beyond, she advocates for survivors of sexual violence and works as a writing coach and as a community organizer for a rural LGBTQ+ nonprofit.

Alexis Ivy is a 2018 recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Poetry. She is the author of Romance with Small-Time Crooks (BlazeVOX [books], 2013), and Taking the Homeless Census (Saturnalia Books, 2020) which won the 2018 Saturnalia Editors Prize. She is co-editor of Essential Voices: A COVID-19 Anthology (West Virginia University Press, 2023). A recent resident of the Sundress Academy for the Arts, she lives in her hometown Boston, working as an advocate for the homeless, and teaching in the PoemWorks community.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Dark Beds by Diana Whitney

This selection, chosen by guest editor Alexis Ivy, is from Dark Beds by Diana Whitney (June Road Press, 2023).

Etymology of Fidelity

from Latin fides: faith
from Old English bide: to beg, persuade
careful observance of duty
adherence to a person to whom one is bound

The exact truth wrenched free:
brutal nail in the framing joist.
I have betrayed, lied, withheld
essentials, played you for a fool
for a fern-wrapped haiku
and a ragged bouquet of loosestrife.

Sacrifice is needed—to shun
the possible selves, resist the intoxicating
forest of the unknown, secret
euphoria of hidden poems.

Here is my allegiance—to hold
in balance what is sworn
and what is possible,
to keep watch, guard the fortress.

Heart, I bid you: obey.
Return again to the altar
where we began, kneeling by the stove
in a cold cabin by a frozen lake,
kneeling before iron with one lit match,
blowing on kindling
through our cupped hands.

Diana Whitney writes across genres with a focus on feminism, motherhood, and sexuality. Dark Beds, her second poetry collection, was published by June Road Press in 2023 and named a finalist for the Poetry Society of Virginia’s North American Book Award. She is also the editor of the bestselling anthology You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves (2021), winner of the Claudia Lewis Award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, Glamour, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. Her first book, Wanting It, won the Rubery Book Award, and her third collection, Girl Trouble, is forthcoming from CavanKerry Press in 2026. Diana has received numerous grants for her writing, including from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Vermont Arts Council, and holds an MFA in poetry from New England College. A feminist activist in her Vermont hometown and beyond, she advocates for survivors of sexual violence and works as a writing coach and as a community organizer for a rural LGBTQ+ nonprofit.

Alexis Ivy is a 2018 recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Poetry. She is the author of Romance with Small-Time Crooks (BlazeVOX [books], 2013), and Taking the Homeless Census (Saturnalia Books, 2020) which won the 2018 Saturnalia Editors Prize. She is co-editor of Essential Voices: A COVID-19 Anthology (West Virginia University Press, 2023). A recent resident of the Sundress Academy for the Arts, she lives in her hometown Boston, working as an advocate for the homeless, and teaching in the PoemWorks community.