Oliver Baez Bendorf
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oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social
Oliver Baez Bendorf
@oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social
740 followers 230 following 41 posts
🪶 Poet, teacher, 🏳️‍⚧️writer in exile
📖 Consider the Rooster, finalist for the NBCC + CLMP Firecracker Awards
🌿 Language still belongs to me
oliverbaezbendorf.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
slowdownshow.org
“Today’s poem carries that same energy of self-discovery, inevitable change, and an extravagance of living,” shares Major in today’s encore episode.

Read “Nocturne” by Oliver Baez Bendorf @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social‬: bit.ly/3IUaqAj
An excerpt from “Nocturne” by Oliver Baez Bendorf A headshot of Oliver Baez Bendorf
August 1, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
simeonberry.bsky.social
“right now, / someone is having sex and someone / is dying and someone is trying to find / a lid so they can, before bed, put away / the soup” — @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social, “Everything All at Once” @yalereview.bsky.social yalereview.org/article/oliv...
Oliver Baez Bendorf: "Everything All at Once"
A poem by Oliver Baez Bendorf: "right now, / someone is having sex and someone / is dying"
yalereview.org
June 11, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
alexanderchee.bsky.social
"Grief is not a checkpoint. It travels with you. It gets there first. It sits beside you and does not speak." @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social on being trans in exile from the US. lithub.com/after-the-ro...
After the Rooster Crows: Dispatch from a Poet in Exile
There is no other way to say this: I write you now from exile, having (if you are reading this) fled political persecution in my home country, the United (for now) States of America. I say this pla…
lithub.com
May 6, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
literaryhub.bsky.social
“There are moments when a place you live stops being livable. Sometimes that arrives slowly, like a leak. Sometimes all at once.” A dispatch from @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social, poet in exile.
After the Rooster Crows: Dispatch from a Poet in Exile
There is no other way to say this: I write you now from exile, having (if you are reading this) fled political persecution in my home country, the United (for now) States of America. I say this pla…
buff.ly
May 5, 2025 at 5:30 PM
oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social
My essay “After the Rooster Crows” is out today at @literaryhub.bsky.social.
It’s about exile, poetry, and what I’ve brought with me.
Thank you for reading.

lithub.com/after-the-ro...
After the Rooster Crows: Dispatch from a Poet in Exile
There is no other way to say this: I write you now from exile, having (if you are reading this) fled political persecution in my home country, the United (for now) States of America. I say this pla…
lithub.com
May 5, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
karlajstrand.com
My giant #poetry column is now live @msmagazine.com!

Featuring @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social @theoceanisgay.bsky.social @jxzzhndz.bsky.social @taylorbyas.bsky.social @aditimachado.bsky.social @terisasiagatonu.bsky.social @catherineweiss.bsky.social & more!

msmagazine.com/2025/04/21/r...
Reads for the Rest of Us: The Best Poetry of 2024 and 2025
Happy April, and Happy National Poetry Month. Since my dormant love of poetry was reignited, I’ve found it so refreshing and inspiring to read beautiful collections each year and share them with you.H...
msmagazine.com
April 22, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
alexanderchee.bsky.social
Congratulations @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social !
January 27, 2025 at 1:15 AM
oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social
Thrilled and grateful. Thank you, @bookcritics.bsky.social.
A graphic and message celebrating Consider the Rooster being named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. The graphic includes the cover image of the book. The text reads: ‘I’m so honored. Consider the Rooster has been named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, alongside such brilliant books. These times aren’t just heavy, they’re dangerous. Book bans are on a furious rise. They’re targeting voices like mine, stories like ours. Federico García Lorca was assassinated by fascists for his poetry and his queerness, but through earth and verse, he guides us still. As Rane Arroyo wrote, “The dead tell the living to live.” At the heart of this big book is a very small rooster: Walter Mercado, RIP. I carry a lineage of those who have survived attempts to erase us. Consider the Rooster is my offering to that lineage. It’s my joyful refusal to pipe down. It’s also your invitation to sing. For all of us to move through the portal of what’s dawning. To be recognized in this way—especially now—moves me to a place almost beyond words. Almost 😉. Thank you to the @bookcritics, to everyone who’s held this book with love, and to the rooster in you.’
January 25, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
marcelohcastillo.bsky.social
@oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social So happy for you!
bookcritics.bsky.social National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · Jan 23
We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry! Congratulations to all of the finalists.
The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry are An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang (Copper Canyon), Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf (Nightboat), Instructions for the Lovers by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat), Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions).
January 23, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
nerudap.bsky.social
Consider the Rooster, poems by Oliver Baez Bendorf (also from Nighboat) "serves as an ode to a rooster's crow, a catalyst for awakening, both literally and figuratively."

Here's a conversation with the poet:
www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/intervenxion...
bookcritics.bsky.social National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · Jan 23
We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry! Congratulations to all of the finalists.
The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry are An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang (Copper Canyon), Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf (Nightboat), Instructions for the Lovers by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat), Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions).
January 24, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
rika99.bsky.social
Giant congrats to all the fab NBCC poetry finalists! 🎉

@oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social + @cphillipspoet.bsky.social + my mfa cohort-mate Jen Chang!
bookcritics.bsky.social National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · Jan 23
We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry! Congratulations to all of the finalists.
The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry are An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang (Copper Canyon), Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf (Nightboat), Instructions for the Lovers by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat), Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions).
January 23, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
urayoan.bsky.social
Felicidades @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social! & in such amazing company! I had the honor and of blurbing this mighty book & have not stopped thinking about it since! Orgullo!
bookcritics.bsky.social National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · Jan 23
We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry! Congratulations to all of the finalists.
The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry are An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang (Copper Canyon), Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf (Nightboat), Instructions for the Lovers by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat), Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions).
January 24, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
elnorterecuerda.bsky.social
Oliver! So happy for you friend! @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social
bookcritics.bsky.social National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · Jan 23
We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry! Congratulations to all of the finalists.
The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry are An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang (Copper Canyon), Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf (Nightboat), Instructions for the Lovers by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat), Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions).
January 23, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
paulhlava.bsky.social
Congrats @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social on being a finalist for the National Book Critics Award! 🏆
January 23, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
bookcritics.bsky.social
We're excited to announce the shortlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry! Congratulations to all of the finalists.
The finalists for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry are An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang (Copper Canyon), Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf (Nightboat), Instructions for the Lovers by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat), Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions).
January 23, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
davidwoo.bsky.social
Poem of the Day, from the books longlisted for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry: “Everywhere All At Once,” from Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf (Nightboat Books) @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social Look for our finalist announcement on January 23rd (3/10)
January 5, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
katecrane.bsky.social
Impervious
by @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social

from Consider the Rooster
Impervious is the poem title. Poem: Someone stops over unannounced like the old days, so I pop open that bottle of Sancerre I’ve been saving. Talk turns to carp that reached the roadway After Thursday’s 3 inches of rain, how some said invasive, let them die, others said naturalized, let them live, someone asked for a net and others said they’d catch them with their hands. I could never do what the raccoon does, tossing pink petals, or could I? We go to the club that turns gay only on Saturday nights. In the morning, I’m still gay, thank god. But the rain, it’s returning.
December 1, 2024 at 9:21 PM
oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social
Wow. I'm incredibly honored.
bookcritics.bsky.social National Book Critics Circle @bookcritics.bsky.social · Dec 18
We're excited to announce the longlist for the 2024 NBCC Award for Poetry! Congratulations to all of the nominees. www.bookcritics.org/2024/12/18/2...
December 18, 2024 at 7:43 PM
oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social
Revisiting June Jordan today: "we are the ones we have been waiting for."
Image shows the final two stanzas of June Jordan's "Poem for South African Women," in which the text reads: "And who will join this standing up / and the ones who stood without sweet company / will sing and sing / back into the mountains and / if necessary / even under the sea // we are the ones we have been waiting for."
December 17, 2024 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
larrylafountain.bsky.social
From Rooster to Rooster:
A Conversation With Oliver Baez Bendorf
@oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social
Nov 19, 2024
Written By Roque Raquel Salas Rivera
@roqueraquel.bsky.social

www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/intervenxion...
From Rooster to Rooster: A Conversation With Oliver Baez Bendorf — The Latinx Project at NYU
The first time I went to a cockfight was the night the federal ban took effect in Puerto Rico . Accompanied by a journalist and a friend, I watched as men made and changed bets through gestures and...
www.latinxproject.nyu.edu
December 17, 2024 at 4:03 PM
oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social
Dang, Consider the Rooster made Electric Lit’s Best Poetry Collections of 2024!

“Oliver Baez Bendorf troubles the boundaries: of countries, genders, time periods… cement[ing] Bendorf’s status as one of the most interesting poets working today.”

Grateful 💖

electricliterature.com/electric-lit...
Electric Lit's Best Poetry Collections of 2024 - Electric Literature
Books by Danez Smith, Anne Carson, and Hala Alyan are among the year’s most celebrated poetry collections
electricliterature.com
December 3, 2024 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Oliver Baez Bendorf
chenchenwrites.bsky.social
need to make a weird zine
November 27, 2024 at 5:00 AM
oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social
Knowing where you come from is its own kind of strength. Here's my Grandpa Baez and my mom in his kitchen, filled with chickens, roosters, and family. My new book Consider the Rooster honors these roots—resilience and courage. 💜

PS: Link in bio to support my fight for justice and accountability.
Photo of a smiling older Latino man wearing glasses, a white T-shirt, and a green beret-style cap, standing next to a smiling woman in a bright straw sunhat and glasses. They’re in a warm, cheerful kitchen filled with chicken and rooster-themed decorations on the walls and shelves.
November 25, 2024 at 8:15 PM
oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social
Honored to have my poem “Michigan” from Consider the Rooster featured today at Poetry Daily.

This book means so much to me, and I’m so grateful to everyone who’s supported it and made space for its words. 💖 If you haven’t yet, grab a copy of Consider the Rooster—available now from Nightboat Books.
November 24, 2024 at 8:47 PM