Come learn how trans poets use their words to challenge and disrupt structures of marginalization. With t love smith, Jude Marx, Sampson Spadafore, Vincent Herrington, & Elm Root.

Part of the Friends of the Scarborough Library Emerson Lecture Series

Trans Poetics as a Form of Resistance:

Monster Beauties is an intergenerational transgender poetry anthology composed of narratives of poets with Maine affiliations under the current affiliations. The book is the culmination of Graduate Research Opportunity Scholar, t love smith's Trans Poetics Archive project which began in October 2024. Through immense community support, Trans Poetics Archive curates public statewide monthly showcases to highlight trans poets in Maine, reclaiming public space for the centering and celebration of authentic trans narratives. The project investigates how trans poetics currently serves both as resistance against oppressive gender norms and as a tool for empowerment within the Maine trans community. Come learn how trans poets use their words to challenge and disrupt structures of marginalization.

t love smith (they/them) is a queer poet stewarding unceded Wabanaki land, studying poetry at Stonecoast MFA, reading for the Stonecoast Review, interning at The Telling Room, and creating content at WMPG, reading as the Assistant Poetry Editor of the Stonecoast Review. As a GRO Scholar, t is curating a series of events for the Trans Poetics Archive which will culminate Spring 2025 with the publication of Monster Beauties: A Maine Transgender Poetry Anthology. Their poetry has been published in new words press vol. 3, Island Ink issue 2, Oddball Magazine, the Free Press, as well as presented on local radio podcasts: Transgender Poetics on WMPG and Poems from Here on Maine Public Radio.