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Cat Wei

@catwei1

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poet, writer, dancer
@breadloafwriter | @tin_house | @idyllwildarts

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THIS THURSDAY, June 18th at 6pm at Barzakh Cafe in Crown Heights, NYC Educators for Palestine will be hosting a fundraiser for kids and educators in Gaza through @heal.palestine. Come for a beautiful night of poetry, music, community, and action.

Art for Sale by Donation: @thirdworldsolidarityfront

Register at link in bio!

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thank you astoria, thank you baltimore, thank you manhattan! what a joyful set of east coast readings. you made this country mouse feel so welcomed. special thank you to Ash and Nat for producing these shows 💖 and my fellow readers, of course!

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nyc fun times!! thank you for inviting me to read my crazy trans autism poems with you @fezavery + Ty @ashffreeman for the pic of me in the poemzone. 🪩🪩🪩🪩🪩🪩

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moved four times in the last year, but saying goodbye to MA for real now (for a little while at least)

a few highlights from the last few months :) (and sorry if i owe you things, i will be temporarily less itinerant in two weeks!!!)

aaand officially moving to NY in the fall 💞 please give me your best tips and let me know if you want to hang out

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1 year ago @thedennemichele and I released our debuts🌟 on Monday, we celebrated with some wonderful writer friends to toast a year of being Proper Authors™️

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Friends of No, Dear: gather with us @babaonwithers on April 21 🌱 there will be marseille-inspired food, good company, and most importantly, poetry. Celebrate and support No, Dear’s work to provide fertile ground for NYC poets to foster conversation aimed at disrupting systems of power and privilege.

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thank you for the love & affirmations for my writing in the world & who I do this for. lots of sweet reunions at AWP (a writer’s conference) this past week. big love to friends I got to see, & to community who told me they know me from my work in the world 💛.

outside of institutions, I believe in us & our amplified power when we come together & remember we are not alone in each of the places where we do our work. on the page & off.

thank you to everyone who came through for a book signing (thank you @kundimanforever, @vermontstudiocenter, & @bellingham_review for holding space!), for my reading with @lambdaliterary, for the good food & hugs.

here are some (but not all) snapshots of us. until next time. 🧡

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Congratulations to Jarrett Moseley, winner of the 2026 James Hearst Poetry Prize, selected by final judge Danez Smith! You can read his winning poem "Micropsia," along with the other finalists below, in the upcoming spring issue, which is available for preorder now at the link in our bio.

Winner
Jarrett Moseley, “Micropsia"

Runners-up
Bridget Huh, "Like a Man"
Krystal Vazquez, "Viviana (Este)"

Honorable Mentions
Hayden Park, "There Is Another Name for the Animal I Am Becoming"
Jessica Barksdale, "What the Crow Said"
Ajla Dizdarević, "You Will Dream of Eating Corpses"
Caroline New, "The Museum of Natural History"

Finalists
Michelle Alexander, "Eurydice"
Jessica Barksdale, "Strike"
Elizabeth Brown, "Her Name Means Peace"
Sam Busa, "Eulogy For an Embryo"
Delicia Daniels, "Chronology of Eighteenth-Century Antebellum Ink"
Todd Davis, "The Teachings of Crotalus horridus, or Love as a Charm of Protection in Appalachia"
Shaheen Dil, "Asha"
Boli Du, "Meta Love"
Sharon Hashimoto, "Dressing Up His Niece for Winter"
Melissa McKinstry, "Missing My Father in Late Summer as I Plant Zinnias for My Daughter's Backyard Wedding"
Lauren Moseley, "Self-Portrait as Giant Short-Faced Bear"
Cat Wei, "Pleasure"

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One of my goals this past year was to learn how to embrace unexpected change and go with the flow when things don’t go according to plan. Looking back on 2025, I can definitely say I did this 🏔️

The beginning and last stretch of 2025 were tough: I got pneumonia twice and had to cancel a long-anticipated writing retreat, my grandmother (and last living grandparent) passed away, we discovered mold in our apartment and underwent remediation, our living room window shattered, and there were long periods of time when I could barely eat anything because of GERD ❤️‍🩹

But as I was writing this #reflection and scrolling through all my memories of this past year, I felt a deep sense of #gratitude for the people and things that brought me joy: I had an amazing trip to LA, I reunited with extended family in Shanghai for the first time in six years, I got to see my book cover come to life (ahh!), I hosted a fun book swap for my birthday, and much more — all of which carried me through the tough times. I’m proud of myself for weathering through it all and finding hope and strength wherever I could 💫

For those who are struggling and can’t relate to other #NewYears posts about starting fresh (how do you start fresh if you’re already in the middle of climbing a mountain?), I’m holding space for you. You’re already doing the thing. Let’s keep surviving together ❤️ Wendy flexing her arm muscle and smiling.

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I’m having a beautiful fall with all my fellow beautiful ladies! 🍁🍂

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How do you create turns in a poem to surprise the reader? How do you make room for surprise for yourself as a writer? In this generative workshop we will read poems by some who’ve mastered the art of the poetic turn as a vehicle for poetic transformation. // details and registration: nodearmagazine.com/workshops

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Tuesday, June 10th: DADA Literary Café will be hosted by No, Dear Magazine.

The night will feature six readers invited by No, Dear: Kate Ehrenberg, Heather Glynis , Tangie Mitchell , Mundo Rivera , Cydni Thompson, & Cat Wei.

Kate Ehrenberg: is a poet, nursery school teacher, and ambivalent lifelong New Yorker. Her work has appeared in Commo Magazine, Spectra, No, Dear, and others.

Heather Glynis: is a poet, performer, and transsexual-about-town from New Jersey. She works at the Poetry Project and lives in Bushwick.

Tangie Mitchell (she/her): is a poet, editor and storyteller from North Carolina. Her work centers personal and collective histories of the Black American South and has been featured in Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora, Poetry Wales, Berlin Lit, Mosaic and more.

Mundo Rivera: is a Nuyorican writer and educator born and raised in East Harlem. His poems have been published publications such as No, Dear, The Acentos Review, Palabra and PoetsArtists, which showcases poems paired with art. This year, he was awarded the Rosenthal Archives Fellowship in the Special Collections Department at CUNY Queens College.

Cydni Thompson (she/her): is a poet from Jamaica, Queens. She writes about God, work, women, and everything else. She’s an MFA students at Queen's College. Her work can be found in Bear Review, trampset, and No, Dear Magazine (of course!).

Cat Wei: is a poet and writer in New York. Her work is Best of the Net nominated and appears in The Slowdown, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, and Gulf Coast among others. A Bread Loaf Katharine Bakeless Nason Contributor Award recipient and a Tin House Summer Workshop alumn, she has received support from the Edith Wharton Writers-in-Residence Program, Vermont Studio Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Sundress Academy for the Arts.

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