Breaking Through

November 17, 2020: TAYLOR JOHNSON

Taylor Johnson is from Washington, DC. Their poems recently appear in The Paris Review, Academy of American Poets, and The Baffler. Their first book, Inheritance, will be published in November with Alice James Books.

January 29, 2020: PETER BD AND RACHEL JAMES

Peter BD is a writer on the internet and the author of the book milk & henny.

Rachel James is a poet and artist. She has presented her work in the United States, Canada, and Europe including at Miguel Abreu Gallery, The Poetry Project, Essex Flowers, The New Gallery, and Totaldobže. A collection of her poems is forthcoming from Wendy's Subway.



November 20, 2019: SHIV KOTECHA AND BIANCA RAE MESSINGER

Shiv Kotecha is the author of The Switch (Wonder, 2018) and EXTRIGUE (Make Now, 2015). Critical and creative writing can be found in frieze, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and in other publications. He is the New York contributing editor of frieze magazine and a PhD candidate in NYU's Department of English

Bianca Rae Messinger is a poet and translator living in Iowa City, IA. She is the author of the digital chapbook The Love of God (Inpatient Press, 2016) and The Land Was V There (89+/LUMA, 2014). Her translation of Juana Isola's chapbook You Need a Long Table Behind a Pile of Firewood to Have Lunch with Your Children in Ray Bans was recently published by Monster House Press. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Iowa and was a poet in residence at the Fire Island Artist Residency (Summer 2019).



April 9, 2019: A. H. JERRIOD AVANT AND ADJUA GARGI NZINGA GREAVES

A. H. Jerriod Avant is from Longtown, Mississippi. A graduate of Jackson State University, he's earned MFA degrees from Spalding University and New York University. He's received scholarships from the Breadloaf Writer's Conference and Naropa University's Summer Writing Program. His poems have appeared in Mississippi Review, Callaloo, Ecotone, Boston Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, & other journals. A recipient of two Winter Fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Jerriod is currently a PhD English student and teaching assistant at the University of Rhode Island.

Adjua Gargi Nzinga Greaves (New Yorker, b. 1980) is a Pushcart-nominated poet concerned with postcolonial ethnobotany, the limits of language, and archive as medium. Greaves has most recently been published in the collections Letters to the Future: Black Women / Radical Writing (Kore Press, 2018), and Creature/Verdure (Pinsapo Journal : Issue 2, 2018), as well as in her chapbook Close Reading As Forestry (Belladonna*, 2017).



November 28, 2018: LAURA HENRIKSEN AND BENJAMIN KRUSLING

Laura Henriksen's writing can be found in P-Queue, The Brooklyn Rail, Foundry, Jacket2, High Noon, and other places. She is the author of the chapbook Agata (Imp, 2017). Her new collaborative chapbook with Beka Goedde, Fluid Arrangements, was printed with Planthouse Gallery. She performed in the 2018 New Ear Festival and read in the 92nd St Y's 2018 Tenth Muse event, selected by Eileen Myles. She is currently pursuing her Masters in American Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the founder of the 1981 Feminist Reading Group at The Poetry Project, where she also works as the Communications & Membership Coordinator.

Benjamin Krusling is a poet, video artist, and the author of a chapbook, GRAPES. He is currently the Provost's Postgraduate Visiting Writer in Poetry at the University of Iowa and his poetry and prose have appeared in Hyperallergic, The New Inquiry, Black Warrior Review, and other publications.