"Poetry is not only a dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives." -Audre Lorde

For the month of June, I am participating in Tupelo Press' 30/30 Project alongside nine other fine poets to raise money to fund independent publishing— running the marathon to keep poetry alive.

Tupelo Press is a prestigious non-profit press, since 1999 their mission has been to publish new voices. They are giving my work some exposure, and bringing me into a community of over 350 alumni helping each other publish our work. Today you have the chance to help one of the few, and one of the best non-profit independent publishers we have. To help them survive and continue to put more poets into print. Here is what you are supporting:

• Independent literary publishers are mission-driven— they focus on publishing literature
• Independent literary publishers provide access to the voices of entire communities
• Independent literary publishers produce over 98% of poetry being published each year, and the majority of literature in translation and works of fiction by emerging writers

Poetry is both an escape and a home; poetry says what many of us are too scared to say. We all live our own separate lives, but poetry brings forth the universal feelings our individual experiences share and connect us with.

As bookstores' poetry sections become smaller and smaller, I'm on a mission to build them back up by sharing raw, unedited work every day and advocating for the craft I cherish so dearly. A poet's future relies on a poet's past, and non-profit publishers like Tupelo Press provide a platform for generations to come and a memento for readers to pass on.

I appreciate you all for sponsoring me and cheering me on along the way, and joining me in championing poetry's importance in our world— the root of what keeps us human.