Poems can make a difference!

Thank you for visiting my page! I’m honored to have been chosen by Tupelo Press to write 30 poems in 30 days! This poetry marathon will raise money so Tupelo can continue to publish books by new and emerging writers, including teens, and bring new voices to the literary conversation.

I am passionate about poetry! I’m currently working on a manuscript that may become a chapbook on a subject I’ve been pondering for years — growing up as a “Red Diaper Baby” (that is, a child of American Communists in the 1950s and ‘60s). It’s time for me to write about this, both for myself, and because the “othering” and fear-mongering in our world's political landscape today is not unlike what occurred back then. Though writing 30 poems in 30 days is daunting, I hope it will jumpstart my work on this project!

Tupelo provides the canvas; I bring my words, accompanied by a cohort of fine poets, each writing thirty poems in thirty days! Every dollar you contribute gives me confidence to write more, and enables Tupelo to do its wonderful work in the literary world. Help me meet my fundraising goal for this distinguished press — please give today!

Joanne Fay Brown applied her passion for writing in an award-winning corporate communications career while at the same time nurturing a passion for poetry. She is a certified instructor and active member in Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) and has led creative writing workshops in Oakland, Oaxaca, Mexico, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. She currently offers writing workshops using the AWA method for cancer patients and survivors. She was a student at the Tupelo Press poetry retreat in Truchas, NM, in 2019, and has published poems in Persimmon Tree, Evening Street Review, Peregrine, Literary North, and upcoming in 2022, The Main Street Rag.