Samantha Pious

I’m delighted that A Crown of Violets has received not one but two Honorable Mentions from Elisa Rolle’s Rainbow Awards 2018–2019! One of the contest judges writes:

Beautiful explorations of the complexities of a full spectrum female love — joyful, tortured, expectant, unrequited. Brave and unabashed. Also, the translation sparkles, bringing the verse dancing to life on the page. Absolutely wonderful.

Another reviewer says:

I loved the fact that this book gave both the French and then the English translation for each poem—I found it very interesting. I liked the poems as well.

Copies are available for purchase through Headmistress Press as well as Amazon.

This is a list of 20th- and 21st-century poetry collections that may be of interest to medievalists.

1. Patience Agbabi, Telling Tales (Canongate, 2014)
   • Adaptation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
2. Maryann Corbett, Mid Evil (U Evansville Press, 2014)
   • Medievalist miscellany from Christine de Pizan to Old English riddles.
3. Hilary Davies, In a Valley of This Restless Mind (Enitharmon Press, 1998)
   • In the personae of Heloise & Abelard.
4. Melissa Range, Scriptorium (Beacon Press, 2016)
   • Inspired by the illuminated manuscripts produced by medieval scribes.
5. Charles Williams, Taliessin through Logres & The Region of the Summer Stars (1938; repr. Apocryphile Press, 2016)
   • Arthurian mythopoeia.

I’m excited to have two poems in the Summer 2019 issue of Mezzo Cammin! I wrote “Twice-Told Tale” after a conversation with my mother, which (she claimed) was actually the second time we had talked about this particular topic. The addressee in “Scholar Ship” is also a real person and a good friend, despite some differences of opinion.

This is a list—Anglophone-centric, unfortunately—of current lesbian and bi+ women poets (trans & cis) who have published books of poetry. *Please let me know if you would like to be added or removed.*

*For a catalogue of non-cis poets, including trans men and non-binary people, visit Bogi Takács’s list on GoodReads.

1. Etel Adnan
   • Surge (Nightboat Books)
2. Patience Agbabi
   • R.A.W. (Gecko Press)
   • Transformatrix (Canongate Books)
   • Bloodshot Monochrome (Canongate)
   • Telling Tales (Canongate)
3. Liz Ahl
   • Beating the Bounds (Hobblebush Books)
   • Home Economics (Seven Kitchens Press)
   • Luck (Pecan Grove Press)
4. Anastacia-Renée Tolbert
   • (v.) (Gramma)
5. Joan Annsfire
   • Distant Music (Headmistress Press)
6. Colette Arrand
   • Hold Me Gorilla Monsoon (Opo Books and Objects)
7. Fatimah Asghar
   • If They Come for Us (Penguin Random House)
8. Amber Atiya
   • the fierce bums of doo-wop (Argos Books)
9. Samiya Bashir
   • Field Theories (Nightboat)
   • Gospel (RedBone)
   • Where the Apple Falls (RedBone)
10. Robin Becker
    • Personal Effects (Alice James Books)
    • Backtalk (Alice James Books)
    • Giacometti’s Dog (University of Pittsburgh Press)
    • All-American Girl (University of Pittsburgh Press)
    • The Horse Fair (University of Pittsburgh Press)
    • Domain of Perfect Affection (University of Pittsburgh Press)
    • Tiger Heron (University of Pittsburgh Press)
    • The Black Bear Inside Me (University of Pittsburgh Press)
    • Venetian Blue (Frick Art Museum)
11. Maureen Bocka
    • First Name Barbie Last Name Doll (Headmistress Press)
12. Carolyn Boll
    • Social Dance (Headmistress Press)
13. Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
    • Arrival (Triquarterly)
    • Raw Air (Fly By Night Press)
    • Night When Moon Follows (Long Shot Productions)
    • Convincing the Body (Vintage Entity Press)
14. Elizabeth Bradfield
    • Interpretive Work (Arktoi Books)
    • Once Removed (Persea Books)
    • Approaching Ice (Persea)
15. Dionne Brand
    • Fore Day Morning (Khoisan Artists)
    • Earth Magic (Kids Can Press)
    • Primitive Offensive (Williams-Wallace International Inc.)
    • Winter Epigrams and Epigrams to Ernesto Cardenal in Defense of Claudia (Williams-Wallace)
    • Chronicles of the Hostile Sun (Williams-Wallace)
    • No Language is Neutral (Coach House Press)
    • Land to Light On (McClelland & Stewart)
    • thirsty (McClelland & Stewart)
    • Inventory (McClelland & Stewart)
    • Ossuaries (McClelland & Stewart)
    • The Blue Clerk: Ars Poetica in 59 Versos (Duke University Press)
16. Nicole Brossard
    • aube à la saison and These Our Mothers (translated by Barbara Godard)
17. Farrell Greenwald Brennan
    • Diatribe from the Library (Headmistress Press)
18. Yoseli Castillo Fuertes
    • De eso sí se habla / Of That, I Speak
19. Sarah Caulfield
    • Spine (Headmistress Press)
20. Gabrielle Calvocoressi
    • Rocket Fantastic (Persea Books)
    • Apocalyptic Swing (Persea)
    • The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart (Persea)
21. Audrey Carroll
    • Queen of Pentacles (Choose the Sword Press)
22. Anne Carson
    • If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (Alfred A. Knopf)
    • Plainwater: Essays and Poetry (Knopf)
    • Glass, Irony, and God (New Directions)
    • Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse (Knopf)
    • Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera (Knopf)
    • Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides (New York Review Books)
    • An Oresteia (Faber & Faber)
    • Nox (New Directions)
    • Red Doc> (Knopf)
    • Float (Knopf)
23. Kristin Chang
    • Past Lives, Future Bodies (Black Lawrence Press)
24. Staceyann Chin
    • Wildcat Woman
25. Franny Choi
    • Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody Publishing)
    • Soft Science (Alice James Books)
    • Death by Sex Machine (Sibling Rivalry Press)
26. Cheryl Clarke
    • Narratives (Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press)
    • By My Precise Haircut (The Word Works Press)
    • Living as a Lesbian (Sapphic Classics)
    • Humid Pitch (Firebrand)
    • Experimental Love (Firebrand)
    • Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry, 1980–2005 (Carroll & Graf Publishing)
27. Elizabeth Colen
    • What Weaponry (Black Lawrence Press)
    • Money for Sunsets (Steel Toe Books)
    • Waiting Up for the End of the World (Jaded Ibis Press)
    • The Green Condition (Ricochet Editions)
28. Flower Conroy
    • The Awful Suicidal Swans (Headmistress Press)
29. Dani Couture
    • Good Meat (Pedlar Press)
    • Sweet (Pedlar)
    • YAW (Mansfield)
30. Cristie Cyane
    • demain j’y vais (Éditions Geneviève Pastre)
31. Elayna Mae Darcy
    • Unraveling Light (Magic Key Media)
32. marissa dahlson
    • Sunshine Girl: a collection of memories (CreateSpace)
33. Wendy DeGroat
    • Beautiful Machinery (Headmistress Press)
34. Risa Denenberg
    • Whirlwind @ Lesbos (Headmistress Press)
    • slight faith (MoonPath Press)
    • Mean Distance from the Sun (Aldrich Press)
    • Blinded by Clouds (Hyacinth Girl Press)
    • In My Exam Room (The Lives You Touch Publications)
    • What We Owe Each Other (The Lives You Touch)
35. Lori Desrosiers
    • Sometimes I Hear the Clock Speak (Salmon Poetry)
    • The Philosopher’s Daughter (Salmon)
    • Inner Sky (Glass Lyre Press)
36. Natalie Diaz
    • When My Brother Was An Aztec (Copper Canyon Press)
37. Dinah Dietrich
    • Paper Cranes (Headmistress Press)
38. Frances Donovan
    • Mad Quick Hand of the Seashore (CreateSpace)
39. Lisa Dordal
    • Mosaic of the Dark (Black Lawrence Press)
40. Sarah Duncan
    • Week/End (Headmistress Press)
41. Julie Enszer
    • Handmade Love (A Midsummer Night’s Press)
    • Sisterhood (Sibling Rivalry Press)
    • Avowed (Sibling Rivalry Press)
    • Lilith’s Demons (A Midsummer Night’s Press)
42. Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
    • I’m Alive / It Hurts / I Love It (Boost House)
43. Laura Foley
    • Joy Street (Headmistress Press)
    • Night Ringing (Headmistress)
44. t’ai freedom ford
    • how to get over (Red Hen Press)
45. Angélica Freitas
    • Rilke Shake, tr. Hilary Kaplan (Phoneme Media)
46. Diane Furtney
    • Riddle (Headmistress Press)
47. Celeste Gainey
    • The Gaffer (Arktoi Books)
    • In the land of speculation and seismography (Seven Kitchens Press)
48. Olivia Gatwood
    • New American Best Friend (Button Poetry)
    • Life of the Party (Penguin Random House)
49. Jewelle Gomez
    • Oral Tradition (Firebrand Books)
    • Name Poems
50. Janice Gould
    • The Force of Gratitude (Headmistress Press)
    • Beneath My Heart (Firebrand Books)
    • Alphabet (May Day Press)
    • Earthquake Weather (University of Arizona Press)
    • Seed (Headmistress Press)
51. Judy Grahn
    • Hanging On Our Own Bones (Arktoi Books)
    • Edward the Dyke and Other Poems (Women’s Press Collective)
    • She Who (Diane Press)
    • The Queen of Swords (Beacon Press)
    • The Work of a Common Woman (Diana Press)
    • love belongs to those who do the feeling (Red Hen Press)
52. Alexis Pauline Gumbs
    • Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity (Duke University Press)
53. Marilyn Hacker
    • Presentation Piece (Viking Press)
    • Separations (Alfred A. Knopf)
    • Taking Notice (Knopf)
    • Assumptions (Knopf)
    • Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons (Arbor House)
    • Going Back to the River (Vintage Books)
    • Selected Poems: 1965–1990 (W. W. Norton & Co.)
    • Winter Numbers (W. W. Norton)
    • Squares and Courtyards (W. W. Norton)
    • Desesperanto: Poems 1999-2002 (W. W. Norton)
    • First Cities: Collected Early Poems 1960–1979 (W. W. Norton)
    • Names (W. W. Norton)
    • A Stranger’s Mirror: New and Selected Poems 1994–2013 (W. W. Norton)
54. Jane Eaton Hamilton
    • Love Will Burst into a Thousand Shapes (Caitlin Press)
    • Body Rain (Brick Books)
    • Steam-Cleaning Love (Brick)
55. Milla van der Have
    • Ghosts of Old Virginny (Aldrich Press)
56. Eloise Klein Healy
    • A Wild Surmise (Red Hen Press)
    • The Islands Project (Red Hen)
    • Ordinary Wisdom (Paradise Press)
    • Passing (Red Hen)
    • Artemis in Echo Park (Firebrand Books)
    • Women’s Studies Chronicles (The Inevitable Press)
    • A Packet Beating Like a Heart (Books of a Feather Press)
    • Building Some Changes (The Beyond Baroque Foundation)
57. Ellen Hopkins
    • Tricks (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
58. Leah Horlick
    • For Your Own Good (Caitlin Press)
    • Riot Lung (Thistledown Press)
    • wreckoning (JackPine Press)
59. JP Howard
    • Say/Mirror (The Operating System)
60. Jessica K. Hylton
    • The Great Scissor Hunt (Headmistress Press)
61. Candice Iloh
    • Catalyst
    • And Become
    • Break Fast From Her Skin
62. Omotara James
    • Daughter Tongue (APBF & Akashic Books)
    • Mama Wata (Siren Songs & CCM Press)
63. Jenny Johnson
    • In Full Velvet (Sarabande Books)
64. Roz Kaveney
    • Dialectic of the Flesh (A Midsummer Night’s Press)
65. Jackie Kay
    • The Adoption Papers (Bloodaxe Books)
    • Other Lovers (Bloodaxe)
    • Off Colour (Bloodaxe)
    • Two’s Company (Puffin Books)
    • Life Mask (Bloodaxe)
    • Darling (Bloodaxe)
    • The Lamplighter (Bloodaxe)
    • Red Cherry Red (Bloomsbury Publishing)
    • Maw Broon Monologues
    • Fiere (Pan Macmillan)
    • Reality, Reality (Pan Macmillan)
    • The Empathetic Store (Mariscat Press)
66. Joy Ladin
    • The Future Is Trying to Tell Us Something (Sheep Meadow Press)
    • Fireworks in the Graveyard (Headmistress Press)
    • Impersonation (Sheep Meadow)
    • The Definition of Joy (Sheep Meadow)
    • Psalms (Wipf & Stock)
    • Transmigration (Sheep Meadow)
    • The Book of Anna (Sheep Meadow)
    • Alternatives to History (Sheep Meadow)
67. Amy Lauren
    • Prodigal (Bottlecap Press)
    • God With Us (Headmistress Press)
68. Ruth Lehrer
    • Tiger Laughs When You Push (Headmistress Press)
69. Kathryn Leland
    • I Wear the Only Garden I’ve Ever Grown (Headmistress Press)
70. Tess Liem
    • Tell everybody I say hi (Anstruther)
    • Obits. (Coach House Books)
71. Jessica Lowell Mason
    • Straight Jacket (Finishing Line Press)
72. Jill McDonough
    • Reaper (Alice James Books)
73. Rachel McKibbens
    • blud (Copper Canyon Press)
    • Into the Dark & Emptying Field (Small Doggies Press)
    • Pink Elephant (Cypher Books)
74. Maureen N. McLane
    • Some Say (Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux)
    • Same Life (FSG)
    • World Enough (FSG)
    • This Blue (FSG)
    • Mz N: the serial (FSG)
75. Mary Meriam
    • My Girl’s Green Jacket (Headmistress Press)
    • The Lillian Trilogy (Headmistress)
    • The Countess of Flatbroke (Modern Metrics/Exot Books)
76. Constance Merritt
    • Blind Girl Grunt (Headmistress Press)
    • Two Rooms (Louisiana State University Press)
    • Blessings and Inclemencies (Louisiana State UP)
    • A Protocol for Touch (University of North Texas Press)
77. Jane Miller
    • Who Is Trixie the Trasher? And Other Questions (Copper Canyon Press)
78. Deborah A. Miranda
    • The Zen of La Llorona (Salt Publishing)
79. Cherríe Moraga
    • Loving in the War Years: lo que nunca pasó por sus labios (South End Press)
    • The Last Generation: Prose and Poetry (South End Press)
80. G.L. Morrison
    • Chiaroscuro Kisses (Headmistress Press)
81. Lesléa Newman
    • I Carry My Mother (Headmistress Press)
    • Lovely (Headmistress)
    • I Remember: Hachiko Speaks (Finishing Line Press)
    • Nobody’s Mother (Orchard House Books)
    • Signs of Love (Windstorm Creative Ltd.)
    • Still Life with Buddy (Pride Publications)
82. Emilia Nielsen
    • Surge Narrows (Leaf Press)
    • Body Work (Signature Editions)
83. Alix Olson
    • Burning Down the House (Soft Skull Press)
84. Trace Peterson
    • Since I Moved (Chax Press)
85. Jennifer Angelina Petro
    • A Life Lived With Wings (CreateSpace)
    • Transcendencies (CreateSpace)
86. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
    • Bodymap (Mawenzi House Publishers)
    • Love Cake (Mawenzi House)
    • Consensual Genocide (Mawenzi House)
87. Sarah Pinder
    • Common Place (Coach House Books)
    • Cutting Room (Coach House)
88. Samantha Pious (translator)
    • A Crown of Violets: Selected Poems of Renée Vivien (Headmistress Press)
89. Minnie Bruce Pratt
    • The Sound of One Fork
    • We Say We Love Each Other
    • Crime Against Nature
    • Walking Back Up Depot Street
    • The Dirt She Ate: New and Selected Poems (University of Pittsburgh Press)
90. Cassie Pruyn
    • Lena (Texas Tech University Press)
91. Nina Puro
    • Each Tree Could Hold a Noose or a House (New Issues Poetry & Prose)
92. Shivanee Ramlochan
    • Everyone Knows I Am A Haunting (Peepal Tree Press)
93. Rita Mae Reese
    • The Book of Hulga (Arktoi Books)
    • The Alphabet Conspiracy (Arktoi Books)
94. Naomi Replansky
    • Ring Song (Scribners)
    • Twenty-One Poems, Old and New (Gingko Press)
    • The Dangerous World: New and Selected Poems, 1934–1994 (Another Cichaog Press)
    • Collected Poems (Black Sparrow Press/Godine)
95. Verónica Reyes
    • Chopper! Chopper (Arktoi Books)
96. Jen Rouse
    • Acid and Tender (Headmistress Press)
97. Kay Ryan
    • The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (Grove Press)
    • The Niagara River (Grove)
    • Say Uncle (Grove)
    • Elephant Rocks (Grove)
    • Flamingo Watching (Copper Beech Press)
    • Strangely Marked Metal (Copper Beech)
    • Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends (Taylor Street Press)
98. Trish Salah
    • Lyric Sexology Vol. 1 (Roof Books)
    • Wanting in Arabic (TSAR Publications)
99. Metta Sáma
    • After ‘Sleeping to Dream’/After After (Nous-zot Press)
    • Swing at your own risk (Kelsey St. Press)
    • The Year We Turned Dragon (Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs)
100. Nicole Santaluccia
     • Spoiled Meat (Headmistress Press)
101. Venus Selenite
     • trigger (CreateSpace)
102. Warsan Shire
     • Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (flipped eye publishing limited)
     • Her Blue Body (flipped eye)
103. Pamela Sneed
     • Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery (Henry Holt)
     • KONG And Other Works (Vintage Entity Press)
     • Gift (Belladonna)
104. Jan Steckel
     • The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press)
     • Like Flesh Covers Bone (Zeitgeist)
     • The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist)
     • Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press)
105. Carter Steinmann
     • Sticky (Headmistress Press)
106. Lynn Strongin
     • The Burn Poems (Headmistress Press)
     • A Bracelet of Honeybees (Headmistress Press)
107. Billie Tadros
     • Was Body (Indolent Books)
     • The Tree We Planted and Buried You In (Otis Books)
     • Am/Are I (Francis House Publishing)
     • inter:burial places (Porkbelly Press)
     • Containers (Dancing Girl Press)
108. Xemiyulu Manibusan Tapepechul
     • My Woman Card is anti-Native & Other Two-Spirit Truths (CreateSpace)
109. Marylyn Tan
     • GAZE BACK (Ethos Books)
110. Kai Cheng Thom
     • A Place Called No Homeland (Pulp Arsenal Press)
111. Gail Thomas
     • Odd Mercy (Headmistress Press)
112. Ann Tweedy
     • The Body’s Alphabet (Headmistress Press)
113. Julene Tripp Weaver
     • Truth Be Bold (Finishing Line Press)
     • An AIDS Case Manager Wails Her Blues (Finishing Line Press)
     • No Father Can Save Her (Plainview Press)
114. Valerie Wetlaufer
     • Mysterious Acts By My People (Sibling Rivalry Press)
     • Call Me By My Other Name (Sibling Rivalry Press)
115. Arisa White
     • You’re the Most Beautiful Thing that Happened (Augury Books)
     • A Penny Saved (Willow Books)
     • Hurrah’s Nest
116. Rachel Wiley
     • Nothing Is Okay (Button Poetry)
     • Fat Girl Finishing School (Timber Mouse Press)
117. Shannon Connor Winward
     • Undoing Winter (Finishing Line Press)
     • The Year of the Witch (Sycorax Press)
118. Abe Louise Young
     • Heaven To Me (Headmistress Press)
119. Sandra Yannone
     • top (Bigelow Press)
     • Boats for Women
120. Carina Yun
     • On Loving a Saudi Girl (Headmistress Press)

I am beyond excited to have a poem appearing in The Gay & Lesbian Review this month! I can’t link to the poem itself, but you can subscribe and/or purchase a copy at your local LGBT+ bookstore. TL;DR—I imagine a same-gender liaison between Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. Computer code may be binary, but these virtual assistants are anything but …

I was listening to Pat Humphries and my cat was hungry. Lately she has been boycotting kibble and demanding wet food …

At my publisher’s suggestion, I’m giving in and registering for an Amazon Author Page. Headmistress Press is an independent publisher of lesbian*-identified poetry (note: this includes poetry by bi+ women, trans women, non-binary people, and Two-Spirit people) and hopefully my Author Page will make it easier for people to find and order my book and thereby generate revenue for the press. You can find it here.