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Nancy Klepsch

@nsktroy

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Poet, teacher, player of 5 guitar chords

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A Very Large Poem (based on Exquisite Corpse) hosted on the beautiful grounds of Edith Wharton’s home.

This is the second time I’ve been paid this year for creative writing. And while that’s not THE point, it sure as hell is validating. Writing is a radical act of individuation, where you learn to expand within yourself.

Poets are being called to challenge themselves to extend past inner voices and into the surroundings of other’s presence.

Thanks to WordxWord for putting this together and to @themountlenox for hosting.

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A Big Gay SUMMER SAPPHIC Market is TOMORROW! 🧡💖 Can you believe it?

This market features 20+ carefully selected creatives, live printmaking with Opal Hexen, and a Sapphic Open Mic hosted by Nancy Klepsch! If you’d like to join the open mic, please bring 2 poems or short prose under 5 minutes 💜

📅 Saturday, July 25th
⏰ 11AM - 4PM
📍Saratoga Arts in Saratoga Springs

Peruse our Market Guide for the full schedule, best parking locations, and our vendors! See you TOMORROW! 🌈

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It's that time again!

Call for Submissions - 2026 Queer Poetry Prize

Presented by Co-Directors Nancy Klepsch and Shawn McCann, in collaboration with TAP, Inc. and the NYS Writers Institute.

We warmly invite submissions for the 2026 Queer Poetry Prize Contest.
This year's theme: Where we make space
We encourage you to reflect, celebrate, and explore the theme of Where we make space
in your work.

Each entrant may submit up to three original poems following these guidelines:
• 12 lines per poem Maximum
• No more than 10 words per line
Please be sure your work aligns with the theme of Where we make space
• Please submit poems as attachments with no identifying information on the poem document

Email your submission to: klepschnancy@gmail.com

Deadline: Friday, July 10th, by midnight

In the body of your email, include your:
• Full name
• Email address
• Website (if applicable)
• Cell phone number

We proudly center Non-binary, Queer, and Transgender poets in this contest.
We look forward to reading your words.

1st Prize: $200 & Poem printed and wheat pasted to the TAP owned building at 222 2nd Street Troy.

2nd Prize: $100

3rd Prize: $75

#PoetryContest
#CallForSubmissions
#QueerPoets
#PoetsOfInstagram

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🇺🇸 “This is a photograph of my best friend, Ed Gnirke, who never wanted to be known as my friend who died from complications of AIDS. He would want me to tell you that we were two (“extremely talented,” he would have gleefully told you) creatives growing up gay together, and we had a fabulous time dancing on the roof of Arthur’s fancy restaurant after a night at Cahoots, or that he taught me how to put on eyeliner.

Eddie was one of my high school friends who was considered extremely talented at a young age. He spent hours making ceramics in Mr. McGrath’s class and then Viola! There was Hallwalls, a review in the New York Times and then the world changed around 1987 or 1988. Dude comes to Troy, NY and gets a one man show in a few months - some artists wait for years for that here, but Eddie was that good!

I remember Eddie lighting a candle for a man named Tom who he had dated and had died. He was a beautiful and quiet man, a buyer for Macy’s. Tom would meet us on Fire Island dressed in a white linen suit. Men were dying every minute of every day and our government sat by idly until Rock Hudson got sick and shocked the country.

I understand they no longer give out placebos like Eddie received when the cocktail was launched by Albany Med. I guess I’m supposed to be okay with their sacrifice. I’m not. I wanted to grow old with this great, great artist that you never met and died too young to have work on the Internet.” 📖 by Nancy Klepsch #WorldAIDSDay #whatisrememberedlives

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Sapphic poetry night is in a week! Our featured artists are nsktroy and @tinygermanlady ! Please come on by and read some poetry!
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#troyny #event #reading #smallbusiness #poetrynight #antiques #troyny #oddities #antiquebooks #vintagestore #vintagebooks #usedbookstore #antiquebookshop #bookstore #vintage #smallbusiness #usedbooks #troy #antiqueshop

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The winner of the Queer Poetry Prize, Juniper Celeste, will read their winning poem on Saturday, October 4th at 3:45 PM during the Collar City Pride Fest at Hudson Shores Park, Watervliet, NY. Shuttles will be available from downtown Troy! Go celebrate! It’s gonna be a beautiful day!

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Troy, NY – TAP, Inc. (Troy Architectural Program) and the New York State Writers Institute are delighted to announce the winner of the 2025 Queer Poetry Prize: Juniper Celeste (they/them).

Celeste’s poem, “loud-living”, written in the spirit of this year’s theme of Queer Joy, will be installed on the south wall of TAP, Inc.’s building at 210 River Street in downtown Troy. The work will also be featured in a public reading at approximately 4:15 p.m. on Saturday, October 4, as part of the Collar City Pride Festival at Hudson Shores Park in Watervliet.

Juniper “Juni” Celeste is an Albany-based poet who enjoys writing about queerness, neurodivergence, and fighting fascism. Their work is best known at Paper Moon, whose Poetry Nights are the inspiration behind "loud-living." Juni believes that art belongs to all of us and will guide us to collective liberation.

Additionally, Emanuel Xavier (he/him/his) has won second place with “JOY WITHOUT SHAME” and Anna Boughtwood is the third-place winner of the Pride Poetry Contest with "The Shape of Our Softness." These writers will also present their work at the reading on October 4th.

Emanuel Xavier is an award-winning poet and spoken word artist whose work has chronicled queer Latinx experiences for nearly three decades. His collections include Pier Queen, Americano, Radiance, Love(ly) Child, and the forthcoming Still, We Are Sacred (Rebel Satori Press, 2026). A former homeless youth turned literary force, Xavier’s poetry confronts identity, survival, love, and resilience with lyrical ferocity and emotional clarity. He has been a Lambda Literary Award finalist, a recipient of the International Latino Book Awards Silver Medal for Poetry, and recognized as an LGBTQ+ Icon by the Equality Forum.

Anna Boughtwood (she) is a poet and zine enthusiast living in Albany, NY. She is the author of several zines, including the BREAKUP ARCHAEOLOGY series.
Her poems have appeared in Hypersaturation and Voicemail Poems.

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New on the shelf it’s books by local poets !!!

Daniel Nester’s Harsh Realm is a masterpiece of poetic time travel that lets us breathe differently, breathe into a time that has no beginning or middle or end; time that is an orb of music and emotion and language and heartbeat and that comes out of an unquenchable desire to love. Daniel Nester is working at his highest poetic powers in these poems.—Matthew Lippman, from the foreword

God Must Be a Boogie Man is the first book of poems by American poet and teacher Nancy Klepsch, published by Riverside Community Press. The collection explores themes of loss, God, fear, and death, while also engaging with modernity, technology, and social issues through experimental and bold forms. The book’s title is inspired by the Joni Mitchell and Charles Mingus song of the same name.

Drawing the Blue Part of the Flame is a collection of poems by surrealist poet Bekah Fly, spanning a decade of chronic illness (chronic healing), inspired by the graffiti and city motion of NYC where Fly is originally from as well as rural spaces like the Mohave desert where Fly lived outside due to environmental sensitivity and formed a deeper connection with wilderness spaces. This book is a pack of spells in the spirit of magical realism and in honor of the 3rd eye and unimaginable plot thickeners. This book describes a reality that exists in liminal space between how Western medicine describes the heart as a muscle and the feeling of dreaming a thing before it happens.

💜🌙

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🌲 🎉 WRITING THE LAND: RENSSELAER COUNTY BOOKS ARE HERE! 🌲 🎉

What’s this excitement all about? In 2024, through a partnership with Hudson Taconic Lands, Writing the Land (r), and Arts Letters and Numbers @artslettersandnumbers 15 poets—both local and from farther afield—were matched with conserved lands across Rensselaer County and invited to spend time on their land and reflect on it through poetry.

Some of these poets came together for a memorable and joyful week-long residency at Arts Letters & Numbers.

Meanwhile, 10 local artists produced photographs, paintings, embroidered work, drawings, and collages that captured the unique qualities of each conserved land.

All of this incredible work, along with a beautiful preface and forward, was assembled into an anthology published by Writing the Land (r) and for sale as a fundraiser for local conservation!!

These stunning, full-color coffee table art & poetry books are now available to serve as a new kind of outdoor guidebook. Books are $40 — all proceeds go to support HTL’s community conservation work.

Want to order a copy or two? Send an email to annie@hudsontaconic.org.

Thank you to each and every person involved in this delightful and meaningful project. 🌲 🙏

This program is supported in part by @capregionartscenter Arts Thrive and Grow award program. Arts Thrive and Grow has been funded by New York State, Kathy Hochul, Governor. We thank Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins for her extraordinary commitment and leadership, and our elected officials who represent our grantmaking region: Senators Jake Ashby and Neil D. Breslin; Assemblymembers Scott H. Bendett, Patricia Fahy, John T. McDonald III, Angelo Santabarbara, Phil Steck, and Mary Beth Walsh.

#writingtheland #rensselaercounty

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Poetry today. Had all the feels. We laughed... and we cried. A lot. Needed that. Beautiful. Thanks everyone for always bringing the right words when they are needed.

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In the midst of a difficult week, I've experienced a burst of joy from receiving these publications in the mail:

Clockwise from top left:
American Crow by Jennifer Browne [2024, Beltway Editions],
The Aching Season by Victor Clevenger [2024, Bone Machine Inc],
A Music Even of This by William Taylor Jr. [2024, Bone Machine Inc],
Not My Wasteland by Rhea Melina [2024, Bone Machine Inc],
Battle by Nancy Klepsch [2024, Bone Machine Inc],
Verse Violence by Clay Hunt & Briana Muñoz [2024, Bone Machine Inc],
Bone Machine Is Your Friend: 2024 Summer Sampler.

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Hey dear 🥰 I think my colleague contacted you some time back, hope you don't mindme reaching out again... @JunoValentina.amb would love to have you on the team & gift you (yes, totally free) some of their newest jewelry collection as a welcome package!

Please send them a DM saying “TEAM” and they will explain the amazing benefits of joining! X
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👉 @JunoValentina.amb 👈

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