Sweet Action

is a poetry collective that supports each member’s unique voice through respectful discussion and critique, public readings, and our anthologies. We seek to create a welcoming space for a diverse group of women, non-binary, and LGBTQIA poets.

The group was founded in 2014 by Mirielle Clifford and Julie Hart and is based in Brooklyn.

Abigail Sayre

is a First Grade teacher. She holds a BA in Comparative Literature from Bryn Mawr College and a MS.Ed in Childhood Education from Hunter College. She loves teaching young children to write and has always enjoyed writing herself. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and her cat.

AKaiser

has contributed work to both Sweet Action Poetry Collective chapbooks. She curates a tri-annual poetry series with Station Independent Projects gallery in NYC. This spring, she curated a reading in Barcelona, Spain, and last spring, a multi-lingual reading there which included MDoty and Catalan poets, FParcerisas and AClapés, with translator DUrdina. She has read at these venues and also at the Bowery Poetry Club and Brooklyn Poets’ open mics. In fall 2015, she was an invited reader at the Guild Complex in Chicago in the context of the pura palabra / Nossa America project. AKaiser is a translator who holds her doctorate on the first translations of Walt Whitman’s s Leaves of Grass into French, Spanish and Catalan. She received her MFA with Carlow University (US/Ireland).

Amy Klein

is a poet, writer, and songwriter living in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in The Believer, Prelude, Asymptote, and Podium. Her poetry has received an Academy of American Poets Prize, an Edward Eager Award, and two Lloyd McKim Garrison Prizes. She was a two-time fellow of the Home School for poets and artists. Fire, her newest album of original songs, was released in June 2016 on the punk label Don Giovanni Records.

Anna Limontas-Salisbury

is the first daughter, of a first daughter, of a first daughter. She spent her early childhood and teens growing up Monmouth Country and Ocean Country near woods and bodies of water. Her published work as a journalist is featured in Women’s eNews, where she concentrates on issues of women and poverty. She’s been a recipient of the Fund for Investigative Journalism in 2012, Belt Magazine RNC Fellowship in 2016 and is currently a BKLYN Incubator Fellow 2018, where she is project manager of a writing and publishing project for Adult Learners at the New Lots Learning Center, Echoes of Our Lives. A writer and keeper of journals since the age of 12, she’s written poems and personal essays that she’s currently releasing from her notebooks to consider for publication.

Betsy Guttmacher

lives in Brooklyn NY where she is currently the Director of Volunteer Programs for a local non-profit organization. She likes taking pictures of found hearts on the sidewalk (@gumloveetc) and encourages everyone to look down more. She is relatively new to reading and writing poetry and is digging it!

Cory Nakasue

is a dance and theatre artist. She works as a movement teacher, therapist, and astrological guidance counselor. She recently co-founded Gemini Hill in the Hudson Valley, a community farm and arts incubator. Poetry is a new love that has been nurtured by the talented group at Sweet Action poetry. More: www.corynakasue.com

Cynthia Manick

is the author of Blue Hallelujahs forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press. A Pushcart Prize nominated poet with a MFA in Creative Writing from the New School; she has received fellowships from Cave Canem, The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences, the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, Hedgebrook, and the Vermont Studio Center.  She serves as East Coast Editor of the independent press Jamii Publishing and was a 2014 finalist for the New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Poetry.  Her work has appeared in African American Review, Bone Bouquet, Callaloo, DMQ Review, Kweli Journal, Muzzle Magazine, Sou’wester, Pedestal Magazine, Passages North, St. Ann’s Review, and elsewhere. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Dell Lemmon

is thrilled to have one of her poems included in the second Sweet Action chapbook. She also had 5 poems nominated as a finalist in the 2017 Enizigam Poetry Contest. Her poems have appeared in WSQ, Mudfish, Washington Square Review, and the first Brooklyn Poets Anthology, among other publications. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her first book of poetry Single Woman was published by Box Turtle Press in 2016. She also has a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University.

Emily Blair

Emily Blair’s poetry has appeared in Gulf Coast, Sixth Finch, Juked, Indiana Review, New Ohio Review, cream city review, Gettysburg Review and the Brooklyn Poets Anthology, among other places. She received a New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Poetry in 2014 and in Fiction in 2006, and is the author of the illustrated chapbook Idaville (Booklyn Artists’ Alliance, 2010). Also a visual artist, she creates multimedia books and collaborates with social practice artist Michelle Illuminato under the name Next Question.

Joanna Oltman Smith

was born and raised in Berkeley in the Age of Aquarius until college brought her East. She resides in Brooklyn where she’s a full-time mother, urbanist, and community activist serving on her local Community Board and civic committees addressing issues ranging from transportation to police/community relations to parks. Her poetry often intersects with her political interests. Anna Deavere Smith selected her to participate in the groundbreaking Mattering Forum, an arts-based exploration of American policing. Her poem “The Beauty of Uncertainty” recently received an Honorable Mention from Indiana Humanities on the occasion of the Indy 500’s centenary.

Judy Schneier

has a BA in Philosophy from Barnard College and a Masters in Social Work from NYU. She completed the Child and Adolescent psychotherapy training program at the White Institute. Judy has lived in Brooklyn for 25 years. She is a relatively new to writing poetry. Judy has a long background in dance and she is interested in merging the two disciplines. Judy enjoys reading monthly at the Brooklyn Yawp. She is a clinical social worker with a private practice in Park Slope and the mother of two teenage boys.

Julia Knobloch

Julia Knobloch is a TV journalist turned translator, project manager, and emerging poet. Her essays and reportage have been published in print and online publications in Germany, Argentina, and the US (Berliner Zeitung, Freitag, Perfil, openDemocracy, Brooklyn Rail, among others). She occasionally blogs for ReformJudaism.org, and was awarded the 2016 Poem of the Year prize from Brooklyn Poets. A Brooklyn Poets Fellow for the 2017 summer semester, her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Green Mountains Review, Yes, Poetry Magazine, Luna Luna Magazine, and elsewhere.

Julie Hart

Originally from Minnesota, Julie Hart has lived in London, Zurich and Tokyo and now in Brooklyn Heights. Her work can be found in Five Quarterly, Denim Skin, PANK Magazine, The Rumpus, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Floor Plan Journal, Blue Lyra Review, Yellow Chair Review and at juliehartwrites.com.

Kaleigh Rogers

is a Canadian poet and journalist living in Manhattan. She has been writing for as long as she can remember and spends her days reporting on science and technology for Motherboard, VICE Media’s science and tech site. In the evenings, she enjoys working on her poetry and a nice cocktail (or three).

Marietta Brill

has had her poetry, essays, and reviews appear in hyperallergic.com, The Conversant, The Rumpus, The Brooklyn Rail, Brain, Child Magazine, Literary Mama, The Forward, Full Grown People, and elsewhere. Her life in Brooklyn is held in shaky balance by two demanding cats, a good natured husband and, when the planets align, visits from her college aged son.

Marine Cornuet

lives in Brooklyn and works at FiveMyles, a wonderful not-for-profit gallery based in Crown Heights. Her poems have appeared in Yellow Chair Review, Handsy Lit, and Cactus Calamité. She has performed her work at the Sonic Room – a series of concerts in people’s apartments in Brooklyn – and will have a poetry/sound installation included in “The Den”, an exhibition part of Spring Break 2017 (NYC).

Mirielle Clifford

is originally from Texas, but she now lives and writes in Crown Heights. She is a co‑founder of the poetry collective Sweet Action and has been poet-in-residence at Gemini Hill. She is working on a chapbook, entitled Praise, Autotuned.

Mordecai Walfish

is a writer and nonprofit professional, based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He is originally from Canada and has made New York City his home since 2008. Mordecai’s writing focuses on the effect of memory on the present. His writing is infused with (usually dark) humor and he also strives to bring poetry into the nonprofit workplace. He is an active member of Brooklyn Poets and Sweet Action.

Phoebe Lifton

lives in Brooklyn, NY and studied Indigenous Rights and Creative Writing in college. She now works at the Museum of Modern Art and spends most Wednesday nights going to ‘church’ at the Poetry Project in St. Marks. She is a helpful woman.

Sara Emily Kuntz

has a BA in English from the University of Pittsburgh and a MFA in Creative Writing from Carlow University. Sara is a workshop facilitator and organizer for Union Square Slam, a weekly reading series in New York City. As an enterprising copy shop employee she self-published ten single poem mini-books, as well as a small run chapbook. She has been published in the Mom Egg Review, Rivet, Stone Highway Review, Cabildo Quarterly, Rust + Moth, and Cactus Heart. Sara lives in Brooklyn with a big grey cat named Miso, like the soup.

Sarah Passino

is a poet living in Brooklyn. Recently, her work has appeared in Broome Street Review, Poetry Daily, The Hopkins Review, Cactus Heart, 2 horatio, and Minor Literatures and was awarded the Rachel Wetzsteon Poetry Prize for the 92nd Street Y. She is a co-founder of the editorial collective AM Co-op, a member of a local bread committee, and is currently curating an annual artist retreat. She has worked as a professor, a community organizer, and editor and is on instagram @Small Takes.

Shara Hardeson

is a queer poet, copy editor, and book reviewer based in Queens. Her work appears in Newtown Literary, The Horn Book, and elsewhere. She was awarded the 2017 Poem of the Year prize from Brooklyn Poets, and holds an MA as well as an MFA in children’s literature from Simmons College.

Shelby Thompson

is a Tennessean living in Greenpoint who enjoys biking, live music, and the farmers market on Saturdays. She has been published in METAL Magazine, FiberARTS Magazine, and BUST; and has contributed as an editor for The Exposed Magazine. Shelby leads marketing and social media at Tomorrow Lab. Shelby is a co-host of a ‘Big Irv’s Presents: Ladies Night’, a frequent storytelling event in Williamsburg. You can follow her blogs at Shelbsthomcatz & Thomcat Tunes.