When I Was Straight: A Tribute To Maureen Seaton
coming December 16th!
*Editor royalties will fund the Maureen Seaton Poetry Prize, which is sponsored by South Florida Poetry Journal and Limp Wrist
Praise for When I Was Straight: A Tribute To Maureen Seaton:
This is an essential book as we each live through the glorious mysteries and the relentless push back of our culture. Ultimately, it shows us that as Emma Bolden writes, being is being, is beautiful, and enough.
—Subhaga Crystal Bacon, author of the Lambda Literary Finalist, Transitory
“When I was straight, I was mostly curved,” writes Kelli Russell Agodon in the first poem of this beautiful tribute/chapbook, When I Was Straight. The line serves as a brilliant metaphor for the sometimes wistful, sometimes fun, sometimes tragic but always compellingly elegiac selection of poems inspired by the late, beloved Maureen Seaton. Seaton’s poem “When I was Straight” (not only the book title, but also the title of every poem within) becomes prompt and confessional for these poets who use the phrase to explore the complications of living in the closet—what it meant to come to terms with who they are as well as who they truly wanted and want to love.
—Beth Gylys, co-author of The Conversation Turns To Wide-Mouth Jars
Dustin Brookshire (he/him) is the author of the chapbooks Never Picked First For Playtime (Harbor Editions, 2023), Love Most Of You Too (Harbor Editions, 2021) and To The One Who Raped Me (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012). Love Most Of You Too and Never Picked First For Playtime were finalists in the Poetry Chapbook category of the American Book Fest’s Best Book Awards in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Along with poet Julie E. Bloemeke, Dustin is the co-editor of Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing, 2023). In 2024, Let Me Say was awarded a Nautilus silver medal and named to the “Books All Georgians Should Read” list by the Georgia Center for the Book. In 2023, Let Me Say This was a finalist in the Poetry Anthologies category of the American Book Fest’s Best Book Awards. The Slowdown, episodes 1109 and 1139, featured poems from Let Me Say This. In September 2024, Let Me Say This inspired the Poetry Well produced Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Tribute Concert at Joe’s Pub.
Dustin is recipient of the 2024 Jon Tribble Editors Fellowship at Poetry by the Sea and a runner up in the 2024 Desert Rat Residency Poetry Contest. In 2021, he was a finalist for the Key West Literary Seminar’s Scotti Merrill Award. Dustin has been twice nominated for the Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize. In 2023, his work was featured in Georgia Poetry in the Parks.
Dustin’s poetry has been published in numerous journals, and he’s been anthologized in Divining Divas: 100 Gay Men on their Muses (Lethe Press, 2012), The Queer South: LGBTQ Writes on the American South (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014), Braving the Body (Harbor Anthologies, 2024), and the forthcoming Invisible Strings: 113 Poets respond to the songs of Taylor Swift (Ballantine Books).
More at dustinbrookshire.com.