Jane Zwart (she/her)
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janezwart.bsky.social
Jane Zwart (she/her)
@janezwart.bsky.social
2.6K followers 2.9K following 520 posts
Here for poems & other beauties. Writing in Poetry, The Southern Review, Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, The Poetry Review (UK), & elsewhere. Co-editor for book reviews at Plume. First collection of poems forthcoming with Orison Books in fall 2025.
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janezwart.bsky.social
I know a lot of worthwhile work doesn't gets its due.
And I know a lot of good things are less a matter of deserving than grace.
That makes this mean more to me.
Grateful to the reviewer, to Orison Books, and to any of y'all who decide to preorder: www.orisonbooks.com/product-page...
For a more accessible version: https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781949039689 For a more accessible version: https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781949039689
November 14, 2025 at 8:39 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
I could not have written this poem were it not for my students in the Calvin Prison Initiative. For them, I am immeasurably grateful.

And my thanks, too, to the folks at Muzzle. Link to the full issue in first comment.
For a more accessible version, including audio: https://www.muzzlemagazine.com/jane-zwart-3.html For a more accessible version, including audio: https://www.muzzlemagazine.com/jane-zwart-3.html
October 21, 2025 at 11:56 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
Happy to have a couple poems in the "Flaw & Favor" issue of The Ilanot Review--and in stunning company. Thank you to the editors. 💛
Link to the issue in first comment.
For a more accessible version: http://www.ilanotreview.com/flaw-and-favor/poems-by-jane-zwart/ For a more accessible version: http://www.ilanotreview.com/flaw-and-favor/poems-by-jane-zwart/
October 20, 2025 at 8:12 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
For years & years, swamp pink has been one of my unrequited loves. So grateful to have this poem about my self and the parts of myself find a home there.
Photo of a collection of buttons of different sizes, colors, & shapes to accompany the title of a poem called "The Button Coat" by Jane Zwart. You can read the poem here: https://swamp-pink.charleston.edu/featured/the-button-coat/ For a more accessible version of this poem, please see: https://swamp-pink.charleston.edu/featured/the-button-coat/ For a more accessible version of this poem, please see: https://swamp-pink.charleston.edu/featured/the-button-coat/ For a more accessible version of this poem, please see: https://swamp-pink.charleston.edu/featured/the-button-coat/
October 20, 2025 at 12:11 AM
janezwart.bsky.social
So grateful to @ctsalazar.bsky.social for vouching for Oddest & Oldest & Saddest & Best.
If you're disposed to take his word for things, as I am, please pre-order (or nudge your buddies).
Oddest & Oldest & Saddest & Best, poems by Jane Zwart | Orison Books share.google/7HFw4ReVpSr6...
cover of Oddest & Oldest & Saddest & Best, featuring Joseph Cornell's L'Humeur Vagabonde, a 4 by 4 shelf with glass & cardboard & seashell curiosities. Endorsement of Oddest & Oldest & Safest & Best by C.T. Salazar, also in more accessible version here: Oddest & Oldest & Saddest & Best, poems by Jane Zwart | Orison Books https://share.google/7HFw4ReVpSr6yUgke
October 10, 2025 at 5:09 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
A ridiculous little run of luck on the poetry front this week.
Thank you, Jamie Poissant, for several benisons: giving this poem a spot in Aquifer & for nominating it for the Best of Net anthology.
And thank you, Dean Ward, for letting me borrow this sweet corn & pet moth.
A more accessible version can be found here: https://cah.ucf.edu/floridareview/article/two-poems-16/
September 30, 2025 at 12:55 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
Thank you, @danielnemo.bsky.social & @phebel.bsky.social, for nominating "Market Forces" for the Best of the Net Anthology. I'm a great fan of @amsterdamreview.bsky.social, as well as a grateful recipient of your kindness.
The banner image for Amsterdam Review's website, featuring a black and white photo of several pedestrians, as well as some bicycle action, on a stone bridge. For a more accessible version of this poem (and one other!): https://www.amsterdamreview.org/two-by-jane-zwart.html For a more accessible version of this poem (and one other!): https://www.amsterdamreview.org/two-by-jane-zwart.html
September 29, 2025 at 10:44 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
I'll stand by "I am tired of tidings," for the most part. But getting a message that @thedodgemag.bsky.social nominated "East of Eden" for the Best of the Net anthology, those were tidings that put some wind back in my sails. Thank you to the editors, especially @sambranopoet.bsky.social.
For a more accessible version, see https://cymbals-corn-mx5t.squarespace.com/janezwart1.
September 24, 2025 at 11:21 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
Grateful to have two poems in issue 27 of The Shore, a journal I love--in the company of so many lovely poets & the photographer Melissa Marsh.
So: thank you, dear editors, for making space for this narrow fellow, "Pink."
In this photograph by Melissa Marsh, titled "Bones," a dilapidated--and further dilapidating--building with wood siding is squeezed between two brick structures, probably apartment buildings. The aquamarine sky somehow makes the whole photo look like a watercolor. See the whole issue, including a more accessible version of "Pink," here: https://www.theshorepoetry.org/issue-27?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
September 21, 2025 at 6:06 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
Thank you to the generous crew at Action, Spectacle for making a spot for this poem about breaking & spreading news.
For a more accessible version of this poem: https://www.action-spectacle.com/summer-2025-part-ii/zwart
September 15, 2025 at 8:35 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
Full of gratitude this morning. For my mom, whose birthday is tomorrow. For West Trestle: @patriciacaspers.bsky.social, Annie Stenzel, and the whole crew. To have a poem in their September issue with art by Ellen June Wright.
cover of West Trestle review's September 2025 issue with art by Ellen June Wright: a diptych of color: brush strokes of yellow, purple, blue, green, orange, and a scribble of gold. A more accessible version can be found here: https://www.westtrestlereview.com/wtr_september_2025_jane_zwart.html A more accessible version can be found here: https://www.westtrestlereview.com/wtr_september_2025_jane_zwart.html
September 14, 2025 at 1:07 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
Thank you to Wendy Lesser for making a spot for "Being and Time" (my poem, not Heidegger's treatise) in Threepenny Review.
Extra happy because my poem gets to hang out with one by @toddedillard.bsky.social.
See a more accessible version at https://www.threepennyreview.com/being-and-time/
September 2, 2025 at 7:45 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
Thank you, @gunpowderpress.bsky.social's Anacapa Review & guest editor @gyatchisin.bsky.social, for making a spot for slightly embarrassing but joyful poem.
Thank you, Sarah Byker James, for making me more adventuresome, which is not quite to say brave. xo
A more accessible version is online here: https://anacapareview.com/jane-zwart/ A more accessible version is online here: https://anacapareview.com/jane-zwart/
September 1, 2025 at 10:08 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
Having this poem out in the world is a little intimidating. But mostly I feel grateful for all this being & becoming, for my parts and my dear ones' and my therapist. And for the folks, especially Keetje Kuipers, who made room for this poem in Poetry Northwest.
Cover of Poetry Northwest from July 2025. The cover art, by Aspen Decker, shows a woman in native dress, standing before a yellow circle wreathed in deer prints. Maybe it is the sun. Some small creatures (not dogs, not deer) leap across the upper and lower parts of the page. On the left, a lavender stripe with some of the names of the writers published in this issue. This photo shows the text of a poem, "Gratitude," which is too long to include in this text box. This photo shows the text of a poem, "Gratitude," which is too long to include in this text box.
July 25, 2025 at 3:49 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
I am smitten with this beautiful anthology, Ensnaring the Moment, edited by Leah Ollman and published by saintlucy books.
And almost bewildered to have a poem (originally published in Poetry) in such gorgeous company.
A blurry black and white photo of a young girl (8? 9?) with a large bow in her hair and an expression of worry on her face. The cover of the book, Ensnaring the Moment: On the intersection of poetry and photography. For a more accessible version: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/150050/these-kids-running-through-pictures
July 8, 2025 at 2:34 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
Here's a little poem about life going on, which is of course also a poem about death. With thanks in abundance to Jed Myers & the other lovelies at Bracken. To read another one from me & the stellar writing of a bunch of other wonderful peeps: www.brackenmagazine.com/issue-xiii/m...
Cover of Bracken, issue 8: a windy path through some scrubby, pink & orange desert with rock formations, featuring a marker by the road, which looks a bit like a red phone booth or mail box at a glance. For a more accessible version, see https://www.brackenmagazine.com/issue-xiii/two-poems-by-jane-zwart
June 30, 2025 at 1:46 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
For many reasons--ranging from person-sized to world-sized--last week was brutal. And while neither the grief of ordinary people nor the ruinous acts of the powerful have evaporated, I am grateful to be starting this week with a good memory & a kindness from Poetry Northwest.
A dry-stacked wall, curving its way back and forth to accommodate trees. This installation is by the artist Andy Goldsworthy. For a more accessible version: https://www.poetrynw.org/poetry/jane-zwart-life-imitates/ For a more accessible version: https://www.poetrynw.org/poetry/jane-zwart-life-imitates/ For a more accessible version: https://www.poetrynw.org/poetry/jane-zwart-life-imitates/
June 24, 2025 at 12:19 AM
janezwart.bsky.social
As I've spent fond envy on a lot of poems published in Shenandoah, I'm trying not to take "Jumper"'s lucky break as a reward for covetise.
See the full issue here: www.shenandoahliterary.org/74-1-2/
Two figures sit facing a window, away from the viewer, one with blond hair and a pronounced slouch, the other with brown hair, a plaid scarf, and perhaps an embroidery project on her lap. The scene through the window is abstract: a strip of sand and sea or a stripe of field and sky. For a more accessible version: https://www.shenandoahliterary.org/74-1-2/jumper/ For a more accessible version: https://www.shenandoahliterary.org/74-1-2/jumper/
June 17, 2025 at 12:37 AM
janezwart.bsky.social
@dustpoetry.bsky.social is such a lovely journal, and @tarawheeler.bsky.social & @catherineredford.bsky.social such generous editors.
Grateful to have this ponder find in the latest issue & smitten with Janet Brooke's cover art.
For the whole thing: www.dustpoetry.co.uk/issues/categ...
A more accessible version can be found here: https://www.dustpoetry.co.uk/post/the-time-machine-by-jane-zwart A more accessible version can be found here: https://www.dustpoetry.co.uk/post/the-time-machine-by-jane-zwart Janet Brooke's art for the cover of issue 14 of Dust Poetry, a print that captures the mildly agitated surface of the sea on a fine day, silhouettes of three gulls (or maybe terns?) in flight, and a whisper of wind turbines barely visible against a light blue sky.
June 7, 2025 at 2:16 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
@senecareview.bsky.social is a journal I love, and I'm so grateful to @geoffreybabbitt.bsky.social for making a spot for three of my poems in issue 55.1 with work by a bunch of writers whose books I'm lucky enough to have on my shelves.

Here's the one that clocks in at 99 words, "99."
99 A dalmatian, an Arabian night—to signal abundance, you add one. To signal almost, you take one away: at the bris, an empty chair; from the flock, the sheep God goes off seeking; of God’s names, the silence that follows the recitation multiplying eleven’s small surfeit by nine’s not-quite. Or, if that is all too exalted: from the wall, a bottle before the song begins; on the page, two nines, they spoon, soon their time will be up; on the page, a cartoon: little End Quote in his father’s suit, cutting off the last word, buying himself time. Cover of Seneca Review 55.1: a salmon colored background for what looks like something between a sidewalk chalk fantasia and a quilt.
May 27, 2025 at 8:09 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
A Memorial Day bonus: time to read the inaugural issue of Autocorrect. Grateful to @adamclay.bsky.social for making this new magazine & for letting my poem "As If" be the caboose.
This poem ("As If") & the whole first issue of Autocorrect can be found in a more accessible format here: https://www.autocorrectmag.com/01/index.html This list of contributors to Autocorrect & the whole first issue can be found in a more accessible format here: https://www.autocorrectmag.com/01/index.html
May 26, 2025 at 5:16 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
What are you wearing to the bsky prom?
A tall person in an inflatable "Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man" costume waves in cavernous indoor farmers' market.
May 25, 2025 at 10:58 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
Feeling grateful (also floored) to turn to a page in Poetry Magazine & find this poem I wrote, with all admiration, after Mary Oliver's "When Death Comes."

Thank you, Adrian, Lindsay, Holly, et al.
This poem will be available in an accessible online format at Poetry Magazine's website shortly. You'll also be able to listen to me read it. Cover of Poetry Magazine's June 2025 issue: half-carton of eggs, with the letters P O E T R Y painted on them.
May 16, 2025 at 5:57 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
upload the 3rd photo from your gallery no matter what it is
Person in turquoise-green dinosaur suit directs middle school band.
May 14, 2025 at 8:02 PM
janezwart.bsky.social
We're well on our way to long evenings, now, but here's a little guy about turning winter solstice's corner. With so many thanks to Rhett Iseman Trull & everyone who has a hand in making Cave Wall, as well as much admiration for the writers whose poems mine get to hang out with in issue 18.
A lavender cover for the magazine Cave Wall, featuring an abstract landscape with a solitary figure and a large moon or sun. The day after the solstice we sup. The windows are mirrors silvered with pitch. It's beginning to stay light later My husband says. He is like that. It is a joke, and it is not a joke. His eyes bore a core sample from the dark, a spoke of five o'clock in which obsidian tapers to opal. I know someone born on this day when the daylight starts to build. I know someone who, on this day, stopped her breath, who shut her life as resolutely as if it were a door. Again my husband is right. From here day's shoulders will broaden whether we notice or not, which is reason enough to hope and reason enough not to.
May 2, 2025 at 7:48 PM