Poets & Writers has announced the 2026 poetry fellows cohort for Get the Word Out, a publicity incubator for early-career writers. The program gives selected writers an opportunity to work with an experienced book publicist who will guide them in leveraging the opportunity presented by their first or second major book publication.
Now in its fourth year, Get the Word Out builds on Poets & Writers’ decades-long history of providing practical guidance about the business of writing. Over the course of twelve weeks, the 2026 poetry fellows will engage in a series of workshops led by Carla Bruce, a book publicist with Lavender Public Relations, and attend seminars led by professionals from across the publishing industry.
Below are the 10 poets selected for the cohort, listed alphabetically:
Alfredo Aguilar is the author of the poetry collection On This Side of the Desert (Kent State University Press 2020), selected by Natalie Diaz for the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize. He earned his MFA at the Michener Center for Writers and has been awarded support from MacDowell, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts. His work has appeared in the Yale Review, Waxwing, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere. Born and raised in North County San Diego, he currently resides in Central Texas. His second poetry collection, My North County, is forthcoming from The University of Akron Press in 2027.
Mansi Dahal is a writer from Biratnagar, Nepal, and a graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program, where she was awarded the Waletzky Fellowship from the School of the Arts for her distinguished work in the writing program. Her debut poetry collection, Women in Marigold, is forthcoming from Stillhouse Press in 2026. Her writing has been featured in Poetry, New England Review, Southeast Review, Copper Nickel, Colorado Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Palette Poetry, and elsewhere. She lives between New York and Nepal.
Ajla Dizdarević has poetry published or forthcoming in Southword, the Hopkins Review, the North American Review, RHINO, and Conduit. Her translations of Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian poetry have been published in Asymptote Journal, Versopolis, and Exchanges. She is the recipient of a David Hamilton Prize, a scholarship from the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and a Fulbright grant. Her debut collection, What I Learned About Dogs in the Village, is forthcoming from Carnegie Mellon University Press in 2027
Ty Raso (she/they) is a trans poet, essayist, and teacher. Her work is featured or forthcoming in Poetry, the Adroit Journal, Electric Literature, the Offing, Black Warrior Review, DIAGRAM, Salt Hill Journal, Split Lip Magazine, and elsewhere. She was a 2023-2024 and 2025-2026 poetry fellow at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, a 2025 Gregory Djanikian Scholar with the Adroit Journal, and she is the author of the forthcoming collection Mirror Would Be a Beautiful Name For a Child (Noemi Press, 2027).
L. Renée is an interdisciplinary poet, performer, and nonfiction writer based in West Virginia. Winner of the international Rattle Poetry Prize, the Arkansas International’s Editor’s Choice Poetry Prize, Appalachian Review’s Denny C. Plattner Award, and the Gerald E. and Corrine L. Parsons Fund Award for Ethnology from the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center, her work has been anthologized and published in Obsidian, Tin House Online, Callaloo, Poetry Northwest, American Life in Poetry and elsewhere. She has earned grants and fellowships from National Association of Black Storytellers, Cave Canem, the Watering Hole, Academy of American Poets, Virginia Humanities, West Virginia Creative Network, Walking Together, and the Black Genius Foundation. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Indiana University, and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University. Her debut collection, Holler Root, is forthcoming from University of Kentucky Press in 2027.
Alafia Nicole Sessions is a black poet, educator, actress, herbalist, and birthworker. Her debut poetry collection, Nine Drops of Turpentine, was selected by Victoria Chang as the winner of the 2025 Georgia Poetry Prize and will be published by University of Georgia Press in March 2027. Her poetry has been published in Poetry, Ploughshares, Poem-a-Day, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cincinnati Review, Ecopoetry Anthology, Southern Humanities Review, Indiana Review, Los Angeles Review, Obsidian, and elsewhere. Winner of the Furious Flower Prize, Alafia is the recipient of awards and fellowships from Cave Canem, Sustainable Arts Foundation, Yaddo, and the Watering Hole.
Kiana Shaley is the author of Entrance, forthcoming from Futurepoem, 2027. Her poems have appeared in Fugue Journal, Redivider, the Racket, and other publications. She teaches at Long Beach State University, edits for Exposition Review and Gasher Press, and lives in Los Angeles.
Sanam Sheriff is a queer poet, artist, and educator from Bangalore, India. Their debut poetry collection, Hum ہم , won the Backwaters Press Prize in Poetry and will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in October 2026. From 2022–2025, they served as a visiting assistant professor of creative writing at Bryn Mawr College. Sanam lives in Philadelphia, where they curate the Poets’ Studio at Twelve Gates Arts.
Avia Tadmor is the author of Song in Tammuz, forthcoming from Tupelo Press in 2026 and winner of the International Berkshire Prize. Her poems appear in Best New Poets, Poem-a-Day, the New Republic, and elsewhere, and she has received awards from Yaddo, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Vermont Studio Center, and the Adroit Journal’s Gregory Djanikian Scholars Program. Previously, Avia taught writing at Columbia University, where she co-directed the Medical Humanities First-Year Writing Courses as well as the Columbia Artist/Teachers Program, promoting no-cost arts education in schools and community organizations in New York City. Currently, she is a Clinical Associate Professor at New York University.
Marjorie Tesser’s debut full-length collection, Unquiet, is forthcoming in 2027 from Cornerstone Press’s Portage Poetry Series. She is the author of poetry chapbooks The Important Thing Is, winner of the Firewheel Chapbook Award (Firewheel Editions), and The Magic Feather (Finishing Line Press). She co-edited three anthologies and is editor-in-chief of MER-Mom Egg Review.