Ren Wilding
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renwilding.bsky.social
Ren Wilding
@renwilding.bsky.social
72 followers 91 following 63 posts
they/them. nonbinary. queer. neurodivergent. poet. Co-curator of Words Like Blades reading series.

Trans Artifacts: Bones Between My Teeth
forthcoming from Porkbelly Press 2026.

Trans Archeology
forthcoming from Lily Poetry Review, January 2027.
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renwilding.bsky.social
The next Words Like Blades Reading is on Jan. 22 at 7PM ET. Register here: ticketbud.com/events/9dc02...
Poster for the Words Like Blades reading series. Photos of the three readers: Isabella DeSendi, Andrés Cerpa, and Shane McCrae appear at the top. Underneath the date and time are listed: Jan. 22, 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. ET. Registration required, free with optional donation.
January 8, 2026 at 5:39 AM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 20 and 21: Water I Won’t Touch by Kayleb Rae Candrilli.

www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/water-...
The cover of a poetry book titled Water I Won’t Touch by Kayleb Rae Candrilli.
August 21, 2025 at 9:49 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 18 and 19: Dead Dad Jokes by Ollie Schminkey.

buttonpoetry.com/product/dead...
Cover of a poetry book titled Dead Dad Jokes by Ollie Schminkey.
August 20, 2025 at 4:50 AM
renwilding.bsky.social
Poets, consider submitting to this amazing anthology!
Yellow flyer with black and white text announcing a poetry anthology. Large bold text at the top reads: “The Big Brutal Act.” Below, smaller text says: “Editors Jose Hernandez Diaz, H.E. Fisher, and Jennifer Franklin—on behalf of SHP—seek submissions for The Big Brutal Act, an anthology of poems written in response to the H.R.1 - 119th Congress (2025–2026): ‘One Big Beautiful Act’ (formerly known as ‘The Big Beautiful Bill’). This timely, urgent project will offer readers a way to understand, gain a sense of agency, and perhaps process what is, in many ways, too big and too brutal to fathom.” Submission dates are listed at the bottom: “15 Aug – 15 Sep.” The flyer includes a small logo of a bird with text reading “small harbor publishing.” Website: www.smallharborpublishing.com/submit
August 19, 2025 at 7:50 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 16 and 17: I Don’t Want To Be Understood by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza.

www.alicejamesbooks.org/bookstore/i-...
Cover of a poetry book titled I Don’t Want To Be Understood by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza.
August 17, 2025 at 8:15 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 15: Slip by Nicole Callihan.

bookshop.org/p/books/slip...
Cover of a poetry book titled Slip by Nicole Callihan.
August 16, 2025 at 2:47 AM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 13-14 Public Abstract by Jane Huffman.

www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/public...
Cover of a poetry book titled Public Abstract by Jane Huffman.
August 14, 2025 at 10:20 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
The next Words Like Blades reading is next Wednesday 8/20 at 7PM EST. Please join us for a moment of light in dark times.

ticketbud.com/events/47bcd...
Event poster for Words Like Blades online poetry reading featuring Mahogany L. Brown, Tiana Clark, and Safia Elhillo.
August 13, 2025 at 9:10 AM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 12: All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/676719...
The cover of a poetry book titled All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran.
August 12, 2025 at 11:26 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 11: Transitory by @subhaga.bsky.social — a beautiful and heart shattering honoring of trans lives lost to violence on 2020.

www.boaeditions.org/products/tra...
Photo of the cover of a poetry book titled Transitory by Subhaga Crystal Bacon.
August 11, 2025 at 6:48 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 10: The Boy in the Labyrinth by Oliver de la Paz.

blogs.uakron.edu/uapress/prod...
Photo of the cover of a poetry book titled The Boy in the Labyrinth by Oliver de la Paz.
August 10, 2025 at 7:17 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 8 and 9: four-legged Girl by Diane Seuss
Photo of the cover of a poetry book titled four-legged girl by Diane Seuss.
August 9, 2025 at 8:13 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 7: All Things Gone by Patricia Hemminger. If you want nature poetry with heart, this chapbook is for you.

www.redbirdchapbooks.com/catalog/p/al...
Photo of the cover of a poetry book titled All Things Gone by Patricia Hemminger.
August 7, 2025 at 7:06 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 6: Nothing Is Okay by Rachel Wiley.

buttonpoetry.com/product/noth...
Phot of the cover of a poetry book titled Nothing Is Okay by Rachel Wiley.
August 7, 2025 at 1:39 AM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 5: Mom in Space by Lisa Ampleman. The body as celestial, the celestial as body.

lsupress.org/978080718160...
Photo of the cover of a poetry book titled Mom in Space by Lisa Ampleman.
August 5, 2025 at 9:54 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
Sealy Challenge Day 4: Yellow Rain by Mai Der Vang. A really excellent example of deeply researched poetry.

www.graywolfpress.org/books/yellow...
Photo of a poetry book titled Yellow Rain by Mai Der Vang.
August 5, 2025 at 12:51 AM
renwilding.bsky.social
The Sealy Challenge Day 3: If Some God Shakes Your House by @jfranklinpoet.bsky.social. She uses the persona of Antigone and refrain of memento mori to come to terms with a world unraveling. Also full of love for what is still beautiful and good in the world.

fourwaybooks.com/site/if-some...
Photo of the cover of a poetry book titled If Some God Shakes Your House by Jennifer Franklin.
August 3, 2025 at 7:26 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
The Sealy Challenge Day 2: Willow Hammer by @patrickdonnelly.bsky.social

fourwaybooks.com/site/willow-...
A photo of a poetry book titled Willow Hammer by Patrick Donnelly.
August 2, 2025 at 7:44 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
The Sealy Challenge Day 1: Repeat As Needed by @dustinbrookshire.bsky.social

www.smallharborpublishing.com/chapbooks/re...
Photo of a poetry chapbook titled Repeat As Needed by Dustin Brookshire.
August 2, 2025 at 7:42 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
The next Words Like Blades online reading is this Thursday, 7/17 at 7PM EST. Registration link: ticketbud.com/events/e832e...
Promo poster for the Words like Blades online poetry reading series featuring Lisa Ampleman, Dustin Brookshire, and Denise Duhamel. Thursday, July 17th at 7PM - 8:30PM EST. Free event with optional donation. Register for Zoom link and passcode.
July 13, 2025 at 4:41 AM
renwilding.bsky.social
On Trans Day of Visibility I want to share my poem that appears in the most recent issue of The Comstock Review. It is also the title poem of my first full-length manuscript.
A photo of a literary journal open to a page with a poem titled “Trans Archaeologist.”
March 31, 2025 at 5:04 PM
renwilding.bsky.social
This is for Nex and all my trans siblings and the ways we should be loved in this world.
The cover of the book Stories that Need to be Told 2024, A Tulip Tree Anthology A book open to two pages of a poem titled For Nex Benedict by Ren Wilding. The epigraph is a quote from Carmen Philips: I hope that when we think of him, it's the tucked away dimple that we remember first. I hope it's his eyes and his cheeks, those hands shoved into his pockets and how sharp he looked in his vest. The poem reads: Let your dimples be a memorial to the ways you should have been loved, softly as the vulnerable fur of a cat's belly. I want to read the tracery of lines that would have mapped your life across your face. At sixteen, girls bruised you into the bathroom wall— no one held accountable for your absence. At thirty-eight, I can see the beginning of furrows curving down from the corners of my mouth— seams in place of the dimples I will never have.
November 23, 2024 at 4:58 AM
renwilding.bsky.social
My best boy, George, saying “hi” every time I leave the room for some reason.
A parrot standing on top of a cage.
November 12, 2024 at 6:57 PM