Claire Taylor
@clairemtaylor.com
2K followers 650 following 690 posts
Writer. Founding editor of Little Thoughts Press (@littlethoughtspress.com) clairemtaylor.com otherthoughts.beehiiv.com 📍Baltimore Chapbook One Good Thing available from Bottlecap Press https://bottlecap.press/products/one
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clairemtaylor.com
At no point this year has it stopped feeling like a weird time to share good news, but screw it, I’ve got good news to share.

I’m gonna have a whole book published!

My full length poetry collection, April, And Back Again is coming early 2026 from @pubgen.bsky.social!
clairemtaylor.com
The month of September is looking at this Tigers team today like, “WTF you actually know how to hit?!“
clairemtaylor.com
Today does have a strange Friday energy.
Reposted by Claire Taylor
riverriverbooks.bsky.social
Bookshop has free shipping today! Find River River Book titles there 🌊 🌊 📚 #poetry #booksky
Our Poetry Catalog
Checkout out this list on Bookshop
bookshop.org
Reposted by Claire Taylor
Reposted by Claire Taylor
aaronburch.bsky.social
I'm reeeeeally supposed to be grading... so put together this @bookshop.org list of these fave recent indie press short story collections:

bookshop.org/wishlists/0a...
recent fave indie press short story collections
Bookshop.org Custom Wishlist
bookshop.org
Reposted by Claire Taylor
djvorreyer.bsky.social
People need food, and World Central Kitchen brings it wherever it's needed. Happy to be able to support them in this way. Pre-order sale in effect until next Tuesday!
sundresspub.bsky.social
$1 from every pre-order of Donna Vorreyer's Unrivered will go to support World Central Kitchen! Find out about the important work that they do here: donate.wck.org/give/525879/...
World Central Kitchen
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donate.wck.org
clairemtaylor.com
It's looking very likely that a picture book I've been trying to get published since 2018 is finally coming out before the end of this year. I'm excited, of course, but more than that, I'm so relieved to be able to finally move on from the effort of trying to turn this story into an actual book.
clairemtaylor.com
How does NAWP feel about logging in late to reading events? I want to attend but kid soccer practice keeps me out until a little after 7 on Tuesdays.
Reposted by Claire Taylor
djvorreyer.bsky.social
One week until the official release of Unrivered means one more week of the low sale price! If you are so inclined, pre-ordering also gets you a custom broadside.

Thanks to those of you who have supported the book in this early phase...it means a lot.
tinyurl.com/4pj96v59
clairemtaylor.com
That’s enough, mosquitoes. Time to go freeze and die now.
clairemtaylor.com
Why do these people always say it’s okay to share their responses? I’d be like, eh no, I kind of sound like a jackass, best we keep this just between us.
clairemtaylor.com
I love a folded up potato chip. Every time I come across one in the bag it’s like, ooh goody!
clairemtaylor.com
Very excited to receive a Best of the Net nomination for my poem about dinosaurs & existential dread.

Huge thanks to the editors of DMQ Review for being such fans and champions of this piece!
WHILE MY SON RATTLES ON ABOUT DINOSAURS I
CONTEMPLATE THE FUTILITY OF LIFE

I understand why the Evangelicals are skeptical. These strange feathered beasts. Fanged monsters. Sharp-clawed short-armed freaks. The plesiosaur is technically a marine reptile. The brontosaurus doesn't actually exist. Or maybe it does again? So much has changed in the brief history of my living. So much has stayed the same. Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs at all, my son informs me. The things I thought I knew have been lost to time. I tell him we once owned a
machine that rewound VHS tapes; it worked at twice the speed of the VCR. He can't fathom a reason for this device which is how I feel about AR-15s and every vitamin for sale on Instagram. Could a gun kill a dinosaur, he wonders and I try not to picture him shot dead while learning math. I have no idea. Probably yes. Definitely not. I understand so little about evolution and extinction. One thing changing, something else dying away. He asks me how life begins and I speak vaguely of sperm and ovum, some notion of love but he's talking about the
world-how did it get here, when will it end. I haven't the energy for science or poetry. To explain how the stars are our kin. Imagine a day when dinosaurs return, our bones drifting in sea-rise graves. They'll talk of God and mysteries. Dust clouds. Intolerable heat. How we mowed each other down. We go back and forth about which dinosaurs are our favorites and I settle on the triceratops because it's one of the few I can remember. He picks one I've never heard of before and I nod along, say that's a good one, though I've already forgotten its name
clairemtaylor.com
My toddler, feeling sleepy this afternoon, said, “Let’s lie down and talk about trucks.” So we snuggled on the couch and took turns naming trucks we like.
clairemtaylor.com
Two things I have done today for the first time in 10 weeks:

1. A one-hour yoga class
2. Work on my novel for one hour

I feel better after these two hours than I have felt in months.

However you have to do it, find a way to make time for the things you need that are just for you.
Reposted by Claire Taylor
notatawp.bsky.social
Announcement time! October 14th, 7:00 Eastern: Hear poems from @clbpoetry.bsky.social, @mitchnobis.bsky.social, and @djvorreyer.bsky.social! Hosted by the amazing @readinstead.bsky.social!

Hit the eventbrite link to register. NAWP!

www.eventbrite.com/e/a-nawp-rea...
Promo graphic with author photos of Donna Vorreyer, Chris Butler, and Mitchell Nobis. And the NAWP ostrich, of course.
The text says:
A NAWP Reading
Chris L. Butler
Mitch Nobis
Donna Vorreyer
Hosted by
Jared Beloff
October 14, 2025
7:00-8:00PM EST
Reposted by Claire Taylor
clairemtaylor.com
"No one wants to be cored to their pit."

This whole book is a beauty.

Homing: Poems, by Emily Decker from @yellowarrowpub.bsky.social

#smallpressseptember
Peeling Away by Emily Decker 

PEELING AWAY
I've been leaning against my counter longer than I'd planned.
It always happens this way, when I see the mounds
heaped at the Saturday market and remember
how good the peaches were last summer.
The best peaches I've ever had are always last summer's.
I buy too many, then wind up here, peeling away
and re-looking up hacks like ice baths that never work.
What makes the difference anyway between a peach
that peels easily and one that doesn't?
The ripeness, sure. But could it be its resistance
to being skinned and handed to a toddler,
or preserved in a blue mason jar,
Or stuck in a freezer for the aspirational smoothie?

No one wants to be cored to their pit.
Still, I resent the slivers of fuzzy skin
that cling to more flesh than I want to give. The book Homing: Poems by Emily Decker
Reposted by Claire Taylor
writesloud.bsky.social
A little reminder that I'd love to be on your podcast, be interviewed, be reviewed, and all that good stuff for this new book! 🥹
clairemtaylor.com
There's something to be said for how much kids growing up under Trump/a pandemic have been asked to sacrifice in a society where so many adults refuse to do so.

We let our 8yo who uses Disney+ most in our house decide. Laid it all out for him & he chose to cancel. We can give kids some power here.
ninametz.bsky.social
Boycott/don't boycott ... you're adults and can decide what you think is the right choice

But the "I would but I (or my kids) just want to watch [XYZ]" argument is pretty silly! A boycott comes with inconvenience. That's baked in. You have to decide what's *most* important to you
clairemtaylor.com
On my walk down to the pharmacy to get my Covid vaccine this morning, a blue heron flew directly over me, so close it almost felt like I could reach out and touch it.

Instructions for Living a Life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. Lie to get your Covid shot.
clairemtaylor.com
"No one wants to be cored to their pit."

This whole book is a beauty.

Homing: Poems, by Emily Decker from @yellowarrowpub.bsky.social

#smallpressseptember
Peeling Away by Emily Decker 

PEELING AWAY
I've been leaning against my counter longer than I'd planned.
It always happens this way, when I see the mounds
heaped at the Saturday market and remember
how good the peaches were last summer.
The best peaches I've ever had are always last summer's.
I buy too many, then wind up here, peeling away
and re-looking up hacks like ice baths that never work.
What makes the difference anyway between a peach
that peels easily and one that doesn't?
The ripeness, sure. But could it be its resistance
to being skinned and handed to a toddler,
or preserved in a blue mason jar,
Or stuck in a freezer for the aspirational smoothie?

No one wants to be cored to their pit.
Still, I resent the slivers of fuzzy skin
that cling to more flesh than I want to give. The book Homing: Poems by Emily Decker
clairemtaylor.com
The word queue is one of those words that looks wrong even when it's right. Every time I write it I'm like, no that can't be it. But by god, it is.
clairemtaylor.com
Thank you for reading!