Todd Dillard
@toddedillard.bsky.social
“Ways We Vanish” from Okay Donkey, “Ragnarök at the Father Daughter Dance” from Variant, finalist for the Donald Hall AWP Prize, poems in Threepenny, Southern Review, APR, HAD, etc.
Pinned
my issue of Threepenny is here! here’s my poem “Present Tense,” I would love for you to give it a read!
“I know this so loudly I don’t
hear, at first, my father’s silence.”
“I know this so loudly I don’t
hear, at first, my father’s silence.”
anyway, breaking a line on an article like "the" adds weight to the first stressed syllable of the line following it and is useful for anchoring interior rhymes while also evincing a narrator's heightened emotional state
January 27, 2026 at 9:00 PM
anyway, breaking a line on an article like "the" adds weight to the first stressed syllable of the line following it and is useful for anchoring interior rhymes while also evincing a narrator's heightened emotional state
feels like poem used to be like "inside of me there are two wolves / they keep my population of dears down / which is to say my dear / I love only you / and tacos" and nowadays poems are like "THE SKY IS A GUN / ITS HOLSTER OUR THROATS / LET'S GET LOADED / AND SHOOT THE / EVERYTHING" i wonder why
January 27, 2026 at 7:38 PM
feels like poem used to be like "inside of me there are two wolves / they keep my population of dears down / which is to say my dear / I love only you / and tacos" and nowadays poems are like "THE SKY IS A GUN / ITS HOLSTER OUR THROATS / LET'S GET LOADED / AND SHOOT THE / EVERYTHING" i wonder why
just wondering what additional training will fix this
"You raise your voice, I erase your voice."
ICE in Minneapolis are erasing your rights.
Please share our new video of what's happening in our city. youtu.be/W1dyNcRGRXY
ICE in Minneapolis are erasing your rights.
Please share our new video of what's happening in our city. youtu.be/W1dyNcRGRXY
January 27, 2026 at 7:21 PM
just wondering what additional training will fix this
didn't realize how much I needed this email from fake Elena Ferrante this morning
January 27, 2026 at 2:28 PM
didn't realize how much I needed this email from fake Elena Ferrante this morning
Reposted by Todd Dillard
GOOD NEWS. My novel--a retelling of Hansel & Gretel in which the parents are addicted to opioids--originally titled Abandon & now titled A THOUSAND WAYS TO DISAPPEAR, will be published by Cornerstone Press (Univ. of Wisconsin) in February 2028.
January 26, 2026 at 10:42 PM
GOOD NEWS. My novel--a retelling of Hansel & Gretel in which the parents are addicted to opioids--originally titled Abandon & now titled A THOUSAND WAYS TO DISAPPEAR, will be published by Cornerstone Press (Univ. of Wisconsin) in February 2028.
submitted to my hospital's literary magazine and in the submission form they asked: "If the editorial team finds grammatical errors, may we correct them?" and the choices were:
[ ] Yes
[ ] Yes, but contact me first
[ ] No
clicking that No was so self-empowering
[ ] Yes
[ ] Yes, but contact me first
[ ] No
clicking that No was so self-empowering
January 26, 2026 at 10:53 PM
submitted to my hospital's literary magazine and in the submission form they asked: "If the editorial team finds grammatical errors, may we correct them?" and the choices were:
[ ] Yes
[ ] Yes, but contact me first
[ ] No
clicking that No was so self-empowering
[ ] Yes
[ ] Yes, but contact me first
[ ] No
clicking that No was so self-empowering
at the end of my door
there was a door
there was a door
January 26, 2026 at 10:47 PM
at the end of my door
there was a door
there was a door
memory is great bc you can go from reading about insane ppl on threads claiming the government invented a snowstorm to freeze a giant snake from the Bible, to reading about the snake's huge hog, to thinking about the time Conroe flooded and the two giant sows my grandfather owned simply floated away
January 26, 2026 at 5:34 PM
memory is great bc you can go from reading about insane ppl on threads claiming the government invented a snowstorm to freeze a giant snake from the Bible, to reading about the snake's huge hog, to thinking about the time Conroe flooded and the two giant sows my grandfather owned simply floated away
my cat is always begging for attention when I sit in my office chair but now my toddler is sitting in my office chair and my cat is begging for HIS attention and… like… does she just love my chair??? 😭
January 25, 2026 at 3:42 PM
my cat is always begging for attention when I sit in my office chair but now my toddler is sitting in my office chair and my cat is begging for HIS attention and… like… does she just love my chair??? 😭
Reposted by Todd Dillard
From the NY Post. You know they are really scrambling when they are running "The gun was no angel" stories.
January 25, 2026 at 1:53 PM
From the NY Post. You know they are really scrambling when they are running "The gun was no angel" stories.
on the one hand, I appreciate that my targeted ads are for the philly orchestra, on the other hand, the same man repeatedly popping up and passionately playing the bassoon feels like a prose poem I need to write
January 24, 2026 at 9:33 PM
on the one hand, I appreciate that my targeted ads are for the philly orchestra, on the other hand, the same man repeatedly popping up and passionately playing the bassoon feels like a prose poem I need to write
Sold out! See y’all soon!
Hi friends! I am hosting a poetry workshop focused on line breaks via ONLY POEMS in TEN DAYS! Check it out! shop.onlypoems.com/products/end...
THE END OF THE LINE ✦ Todd Dillard
In this workshop, we will decouple the idea of a line break from historical influence and intuition, and explore a variety of craft strategies to use when considering how to break a line.
shop.onlypoems.com
January 24, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Sold out! See y’all soon!
last chance to register for this class tomorrow!
Hi friends! I am hosting a poetry workshop focused on line breaks via ONLY POEMS in TEN DAYS! Check it out! shop.onlypoems.com/products/end...
THE END OF THE LINE ✦ Todd Dillard
In this workshop, we will decouple the idea of a line break from historical influence and intuition, and explore a variety of craft strategies to use when considering how to break a line.
shop.onlypoems.com
January 24, 2026 at 2:03 AM
last chance to register for this class tomorrow!
finished this nearly 40 slide long presentation on line breaks
a picture of a woman with the words clap for me
Alt: a picture of a woman mouthing the words "clap for me"
media.tenor.com
January 23, 2026 at 10:17 PM
finished this nearly 40 slide long presentation on line breaks
Reposted by Todd Dillard
God I love the weight of a book on my chest as I look at my phone
January 23, 2026 at 1:15 AM
God I love the weight of a book on my chest as I look at my phone
the xennial in me views every DM from someone I do not know with the same suspicion I had for white vans when I'd bike around as a middle schooler
January 23, 2026 at 3:20 PM
the xennial in me views every DM from someone I do not know with the same suspicion I had for white vans when I'd bike around as a middle schooler
just once I would like to open a "What to Know About [Current Events]" article online and it's just a 47,000-character long AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
January 23, 2026 at 3:13 PM
just once I would like to open a "What to Know About [Current Events]" article online and it's just a 47,000-character long AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
what do you call it when you’re dropping your kid off late at school and meanwhile are introducing them to Against All Authority at high volume
January 23, 2026 at 1:10 PM
what do you call it when you’re dropping your kid off late at school and meanwhile are introducing them to Against All Authority at high volume
God I love the weight of a book on my chest as I look at my phone
January 23, 2026 at 1:15 AM
God I love the weight of a book on my chest as I look at my phone
Reposted by Todd Dillard
My first year as a prof I wanted to really emphasize a point so I stood on a table in the front of the room as I made it.
A couple years later an about-to-graduate student in that class told me that he didn’t remember the point I was making but he definitely remembered me standing on the table.
A couple years later an about-to-graduate student in that class told me that he didn’t remember the point I was making but he definitely remembered me standing on the table.
sometimes I think about how a professor once said to never put an Xbox in a poem to make sure the poem can be understood by readers in the future and how twenty five years later I remember what he said bc he mentioned an Xbox but I can’t remember his name
January 22, 2026 at 3:21 PM
My first year as a prof I wanted to really emphasize a point so I stood on a table in the front of the room as I made it.
A couple years later an about-to-graduate student in that class told me that he didn’t remember the point I was making but he definitely remembered me standing on the table.
A couple years later an about-to-graduate student in that class told me that he didn’t remember the point I was making but he definitely remembered me standing on the table.
sometimes I think about how a professor once said to never put an Xbox in a poem to make sure the poem can be understood by readers in the future and how twenty five years later I remember what he said bc he mentioned an Xbox but I can’t remember his name
January 22, 2026 at 3:15 PM
sometimes I think about how a professor once said to never put an Xbox in a poem to make sure the poem can be understood by readers in the future and how twenty five years later I remember what he said bc he mentioned an Xbox but I can’t remember his name
Reposted by Todd Dillard
did one of these for poets a while ago
October 19, 2025 at 7:54 PM
did one of these for poets a while ago
they’re playing k-pop demon hunters on recorder at my kid’s elementary school concert 😂
January 22, 2026 at 1:53 PM
they’re playing k-pop demon hunters on recorder at my kid’s elementary school concert 😂
was writing a little poem seed in my notes app during my daughter’s bedtime and she started peering at my screen bc she’s never really seen me poem before. when I read it to her she announced TRIPLE A PLUS. she’s the only person I will workshop with now.
January 22, 2026 at 1:02 PM
was writing a little poem seed in my notes app during my daughter’s bedtime and she started peering at my screen bc she’s never really seen me poem before. when I read it to her she announced TRIPLE A PLUS. she’s the only person I will workshop with now.
Reposted by Todd Dillard
This picture making the rounds on reddit, Columbia Heights. I'm not OK.
January 21, 2026 at 6:52 PM
This picture making the rounds on reddit, Columbia Heights. I'm not OK.