Tara Skurtu
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taraskurtu.bsky.social
Tara Skurtu
@taraskurtu.bsky.social
2.2K followers 730 following 470 posts
Poet/Writer. Writing Coach. Speaker. Books: The Amoeba Game, next up: Faith Farm. CEASEFIRE NOW. FREE PALESTINE. 🍉
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taraskurtu.bsky.social
If you’re in NYC & love poetry, film, & art, there is a treasure chest of poet Frank Bidart’s personal books for sale at “B” Dry Goods in Crown Heights. Stop in Sat 1-7 PM. Frank is one of my favorite poets, & the books I found there are some of the most special books I’ve ever found.
bdrygoods.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:01 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Help @brooklynpoets.bsky.social continue cultivating community and access to poetry across the borough and beyond in 2026! One lucky bidder will receive an hour of one-on-one writing coaching on your poetry and being a poet in the world. 🖋️✨

Bid here: givebutter.com/c/bkp2025/au...
Brooklyn Poets FUNDRAISING AUCTION BID @ BIT.LY/BKP-GIVE THROUGH NOV. 30TH 1 HOUR CONSULT with Tara Skurtu All proceeds from the auction will support Brooklyn Poets' operations, including fellowships, workshops, readings and free programming at our community space.
November 13, 2025 at 4:58 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
I took a sunny walk and voted early for Zohran Mamdani before heading downtown to teach a poetry workshop. 🤞
November 2, 2025 at 5:57 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
NYC says STOP THE GENOCIDE! 📢
ARREST NETANYAHU STOP THE GENOCIDE MARCH TO THE UN SANCTION ISRAEL FRI. SEP 26 • 9AM TIMES SQUARE NYC ALL OUT TO NEW YORK CITY!
September 25, 2025 at 5:28 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
✨Soft Announcement ✨

FAITH FARM has found its home!

I'm grateful beyond words to be with Unbound Edition Press (@unboundedition.bsky.social). Big thanks to Peter Campion, & to the writing community for your support during my book's years-long journey to acceptance.

Stay tuned!
Unbound Edition Press Author Page Authors: Tara Skurtu (alongside black and white headshot of Tara: white woman with wavy blond hair in sleeveless jean shirt, silver magic pencil necklace, looks at camera--photo credit Spencer Ostrander) Tara Skurtu is the author of the poetry collection The Amoeba Game and the chapbook Skurtu, Romania. The recipient of two Fulbright Fellowships, a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship, the Marcia Keach Poetry Prize, and two Academy of American Poets prizes, she has taught creative writing at Boston University, the BU Prison Education Program, and Transilvania University of Brașov. Tara is a member of the Brooklyn Poets Board of Directors. She lives in New York, where she teaches poetry and coaches writers worldwide. Her book of poems, Faith Farm, will be published by Unbound Edition Press.
September 23, 2025 at 3:20 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
“A screaming song is good to know in case you need to scream”
Book Illustration of three kids, arms up, mouths open. “A screaming song is good to know in case you need to scream.”
September 12, 2025 at 4:51 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Global strike for Gaza! Every week!
August 21, 2025 at 4:10 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
At the NYC Mass March for Humanity I FaceTimed my dad in Florida, & then he made a FREE PALESTINE protest sign for my childhood bear Pookie & his pal. I’m grateful to have a dad who raised me to speak out, rise up & fight for justice. I read recently that parenting is a political act, & truly it is.
Two raggedy teddy bears holding a handmade protest sign with a peace sign and capital red lettering: FREE PALESTINE.
August 20, 2025 at 8:37 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Today I got the chance to meet and thank Mahmoud Khalil. We Ain’t Reading All That, Free Palestine!

Thanks to my dear friend, photographer Lucien Samaha, for capturing this moment during today’s march in NYC. ❤️
On sidewalk, Mahmoud Khalil, left, Tara Skurtu, right, smile. Mahmoud points to Tara’s shirt: image of Columbia letterhead on which someone has written in red marker “I ain’t reading all that, Free Palestine.”
August 17, 2025 at 3:48 AM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
TODAY NYC! 📢
Stop starving Gaza Mass March for humanity all out to New York City Saturday, August 16 2 PM Bryant Park NYPL steps
August 16, 2025 at 4:59 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
💔 Impossibly harder and harder to try to find words that attempt to express the limitless cruelty of the bottomless evil of the genocide.

Here’s a poem read three ways.
DEATH MACHINE because the dead couldn’t speak people were dying death lived and those who witnessed spoke didn’t speak when they needed DEATH MACHINE the people spoke and wanted to live the living were dying the death of a people and the dead lived more deaths to speak DEATH MACHINE because the dead couldn’t speak the people spoke people were dying and wanted to live death lived the living were dying and those who witnessed the death of a people spoke didn’t speak and the dead lived more deaths when they needed to speak
August 11, 2025 at 4:10 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
August 11, 2025 at 3:17 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
In response to your requests for an online poetry course so people in different time zones can join, I’m teaching my very first online course this fall—at @brooklynpoets.bsky.social!

Writing The Poems You Need To Write
Sun Oct 5 & 12
10:30 AM-1:30 PM ET

Register:
brooklynpoets.org/workshop/p/t...
ONLINE October 5-12 Sundays, 10:30 AM-1:30 PM ET Register by September 28th Brooklyn Poets Writing The Poems You Need To Write with Tara Skurtu "You should write that," people say to us more than we can count. But the honest, truthful, at-stake writing that matters most comes from inner need, not the outer shoulds of what others want. In this online, generative two-session workshop we'll rediscover how to write-and keep writing-what we need to write.
August 4, 2025 at 6:08 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Street sign of two figures riding bicycles, and over them someone has stuck two stickers: FUCK TRUMP FUCK ICE
July 24, 2025 at 2:32 AM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Poem by Fanny Howe. ❤️
Il won't be able to write from the gravel Fanny Howe I won't be able to write from the grave so let me tell you what I love: oil, vinegar, salt, lettuce, brown bread, butter, cheese and wine, a windy day, a fireplace, the children nearby, poems and songs, a friend sleeping in my bed— and the short northern nights.
July 10, 2025 at 3:46 AM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Protect Trans Youth. 🏳️‍⚧️
Script on white paper on wooden desk: “Protect Trans Youth.”
June 19, 2025 at 4:36 AM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Black and white sticker on metal street post in Brooklyn: “FUCK I.C.E.”
June 8, 2025 at 5:02 AM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Tonight at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn!
Unnameable Books Brooklyn 615 Vanderbilt Ave. May 12 at 7:00 PM DEREK JG WILLIAMS RELEASE PARTY WITH TARA SKURTU, LUISA CAYCEDO-KIMURA, & AARON CAYCEDO-KIMURA
May 12, 2025 at 5:18 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Timely poem by Danielle Legros Georges.
INSTRUCTIONS IN TIMES OF EMERGENCY Turn the radio low but listen. A slow rustle. (A dictator.) Do not turn (though some Turn) against A neighbor. Do not look A beached And bloated body in its face. Do not plead To God. Witness The executions. Your human self, keep it Alive. A type Of flame. Your lizard self, Your toughest skin, Wear it. Shut your door Against the night. Keep your door shut Against the creeping Night.
May 9, 2025 at 5:59 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Registration for my @brooklynpoets.bsky.social summer workshop just opened! ✨

Would you like to get your poems (or more of your poems) on the path to being published? This seven-week, in-person workshop will get your submission game into gear.

Reserve your spot:
brooklynpoets.org/workshop/p/g...
In Person June 19-July 31 Thursdays, 6:30 - 9:30 PM Register by June 12th Brooklyn Poets "Getting Your Poems Out There: A Submission Intensive with Tara Skurtu" "This seven-week, in-person workshop will get your submission game into gear. We'll revise and edit a batch of poems to send to lit mags and comprehensively work through and demystify all parts of the submission process.
May 2, 2025 at 11:51 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Tuesday 5/6: NYC BOOK LAUNCH of POETRY IS NOT A LUXURY: POEMS FOR ALL SEASONS — 7pm at Recirculation.✨ Excited to kick off the release of this beautiful poetry anthology. Hope to see you there! ❤️
BOOK LAUNCH Thomas Dooley I Rio Cortez | Ata Moharreri | José Olivarez | Tara Skurtu | Jason Schneiderman | Nour Al Ghraowi "Poetry curation seems to be an eye for feeling. In this collection, every poem is a revelation." -FLORENCE WELCH POETRY IS NOT A LUXURY POEMS FOR ALL SEASONS Tuesday, May 6, 2025 | 7pm Recirculation, a project of Word Up 876 Riverside Dr, NY, NY 10032
May 2, 2025 at 2:53 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Poetry Is Not A Luxury: Poems For All Seasons comes out May 6, & I’m grateful that “Morning Love Poem” gets to be in these pages with so many poets & poems I admire.
Book cover: black Text over outlines of golden brown leaves over blue green background: "Poetry curation seems to be an eye for feeling. In this collection, every poem is a revelation." -FLORENCE WELCH POETRY IS NOT A LUXURY POEMS FOR ALL SEASONS Morning Love Poem Tara Skurtu Dreamt last night I fed you, unknowingly, something you were allergic to. And you were gone, like that. You don't have even a single allergy, but still. The dream cracked. Cars nose-dived off snow banks into side streets. Sometimes dreams slip poison, make the living dead then alive again, twirling in an unfamiliar room. It's hard to say I need you enough. Today I did. Walked into your morning shower fully clothed. All the moments we stop ourselves just because we might feel embarrassed or impractical, or get wet.
May 1, 2025 at 2:01 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Taking a moment to celebrate really really good news. Can’t wait to say what it is when I can. 🥂✨
Martini with two olives and a caper berry , glass of bubbly wine on wooden bar top.
April 18, 2025 at 5:19 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
Jane Kenyon What Came to Me I took the last dusty piece of china out of the barrel. It was your gravy boat, with a hard, brown drop of gravy still on the porcelain lip. I grieved for you then as I never had before.
April 3, 2025 at 10:30 PM
taraskurtu.bsky.social
NYC Says: ARMS EMBARGO NOW!
March 18, 2025 at 11:37 PM