As the world brims with so-called social spaces that increasingly feel oppressive as opposed to gentle crucibles for community to flourish, we’ve been trying to figure out how to keep the joy of poetry in its purest form alive. And yes, we think of that purest form as music, as communal out-loud reading, as a room full of kindred souls listening, responding, laughing, participating in the experience of poetry. This is at the root of our intention when it comes to ONLY POEMS Sessions.
Reading Sessions
Open Mics
We aim to host regular live readings with the poets we publish. These take place digitally, but that doesn’t mean the energy in the room is any less electric! You can view some of the readings we’ve done already below and check back here for updates on future readings. Eventually we hope to host special live readings in person (in Toronto, Canada) accompanied with music and food.
Session #5: Kimiko Hahn & Emily Jungmin Yoon
Kimiko Hahn has cast a wide net for subject matter over her ten collections. In the forthcoming The Ghost Forest: new and selected poems, she plays with given forms while creating new ones, and, in doing so, honors past writers. Reflecting her interest in Japanese poetics, her essay on the zuihitsu was published in the American Poetry Review. Hahn is the 2023 recipient of the Ruth Lilly Prize for Lifetime Achievement from The Poetry Foundation. She teaches in the MFA Program for Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College, City University of New York.
Emily Jungmin Yoon is a poet, translator, editor, and scholar. She is the author of the full-length poetry collection A Cruelty Special to Our Species (Ecco | HarperCollins, 2018), winner of the 2019 Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award and finalist for the 2020 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. The book was released in Korean as 우리 종족의 특별한 잔인함 (trans. Han Yujoo, Yolimwon 2020). She is also the author of Ordinary Misfortunes, the 2017 winner of the Sunken Garden Chapbook Prize by Tupelo Press (selected by Maggie Smith).
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Session #4: Major Jackson & Kinsale Drake
Major Jackson is the award-winning author of six poetry collections including Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems (2023). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. He serves as the Poetry Editor of The Harvard Review.
Kinsale Drake (Diné) is a winner of the 2023 National Poetry Series for her debut poetry collection THE SKY WAS ONCE A DARKBLANKET (University of Georgia Press, 2024). Her work has appeared in Poetry, Poets.org, Best New Poets, Black Warrior Review, Nylon, Teen Vogue, and elsewhere. She is the director of NDN Girls Book Club, a literary nonprofit for Indigenous peoples.
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Session #3: Rae Armantrout & Francis de Lima
Rae Armantrout is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and The National Book Critics Circle Award (for Versed, Wesleyan 2010). Her most recent book is Finalists (Wesleyan 2022). Her 2018 book, Wobble, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her other books with Wesleyan include Partly: New and Selected Poems, Just Saying, and Money Shot. A new book, Go Figure, and a chapbook, Notice, are forthcoming in 2024.
Francis de Lima is a Finnish-Brazilian poet and translator, currently living in the UK. They are completing their undergrad at Royal Holloway, focusing on the intersections between class, ecology, and poetry. They’ve collaborated extensively, mainly with Finnish underground artists, on projects like art books, albums, and performances at venues ranging from concert halls to backyards.
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Session #2: Chen Chen & Molly Zhu
Chen Chen is the author of two books of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, both published by BOA Editions. He teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College, Stonecoast, and Antioch.
Molly Zhu is a Chinese-American poet and attorney. Her work appears in Hobart Pulp, the Ghost City Press, and Bodega Magazine, among others. The poetry editor of Passengers Journal, she is the winner of the 2021 Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize for her debut chapbook, Asian American Translations (Cordella Press).
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Session #1: Bob Hicok & Leigh Chadwick
Bob Hicok is the author of Water Look Away (Copper Canyon Press, 2023). He has received a Guggenheim, two NEA Fellowships, the Bobbitt Prize from the Library of Congress, nine Pushcart Prizes, and was twice a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His poems have appeared in nine volumes of the Best American Poetry.
Leigh Chadwick is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Your Favorite Poet (Malarkey Books, 2022) and Sophomore Slump (Malarkey Books, 2023). Her poetry has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Salamander, Passages North, Identity Theory, and Pithead Chapel, among others. She is currently at work on a YA romance novel set around the Donner Party.
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Open Mics
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Seeing the joy of our community gathering for a live poetry reading, even if online, made us think that perhaps we could try something a little different (at least in a digital space) — opening the floor, so to speak, up to our community at large. We’re still in the process of figuring out the ins and outs of trying out our first ever open mic, but we promise to create another beautiful space for your poetry pleasure. If you’d be interested in participating in a future ONLY POEMS Open Mic, please register your interest here (link to tally form).
Tea Breaks
Join the waitlist
ONLY POEMS started out as a poetry magazine and, like poetry, it has become this extra, unweildy, wild, crazy, beautiful ecosystem that we’re both proud of and humbled by.

We want poets and poetry to be read and loved far and wide, not just within our small but mighty literary community. To this end, we have many future goals and aspirations. Not too many of them are possible without money, ha! Enter: the ONLY POEMS membership.

Above, you’ll see a breakdown of three different annual membership tiers and what they’ll get you. As we expand our offerings and avenues for all things poetic, these range of perks will bloom into even better things. For now, though, we’re really excited to offer you — our hopefully soon-to-be Members/Friends/Patrons — some amazing submission (free regular submissions for Poet of the Week year-round), workshop, feedback, and community opportunities.
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ONLY POEMS®️ and associated marks are trademarks of ONLY INK, Inc. All individual works are copyrighted by their respective authors. All poems, essays, and artworks published on this site remain the intellectual property of their creators and may not be reproduced without explicit permission. The views expressed in published works are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ONLY INK, Inc., its editors, or affiliated entities. While many works draw on lived experience, they may contain fictionalized elements; no reference to any real person is intended or should be inferred. ONLY POEMS is an ad-free, independent, reader-supported publication.