Cortney Lamar Charleston

I’ll be posting up at the AWP 2026 Bookfair in Baltimore on a few occasions to sign books, including my latest: IT’S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER. Come around, friends!

@nupress.bsky.social got the hook up. 40% Off!!! Use the link in my bio to hop over to their site and get your deal!

Lawlessness and limitless power are not a good combination. And now, on top of domestic terrorism, we have a hot war. Shameful is such an insignificant word against what this truly is.

I am so honored by this and so very grateful! Thank you, @chanda.blacksky.app! And thank you to everyone tuning into the book at this time. You can get a copy from @nupress.bsky.social and use the discount code ‘NUP2026’ for 25% off! Link in my bio 🙂

Any leads, y’all? 🙂

A box of books showed up and they weren’t mine. It’s because I’m judging the Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award for the All-Wisconsin Writers Awards! Excited to get into these poems and poets!

South Korea ahead of America on beauty products and everything else I guess

Haymarket presents "Poetry for Changing the World" Join Haymarket poets Cortney Lamar Charleston, Golden, Maya Salameh, and Daniella Toosie-Watson for an AWP Offsite reading in collaboration with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.

Baltimore!

Poetry for Changing the World

Join us for an AWP off-site event with readings from Maya Salameh, Golden, @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social, @toosiewatson.bsky.social, Zeke Galigiuri, and C. Fausto Cabrera at @redemmas.org

Friday, March 6th at 6:00 pm

RSVP to attend:

Rest in power, Reverend Jackson. Thank you for living a life of consequence and trying to heal, however little you could, a troubled nation. Thank you for being part of the lifeblood of the city I love: Chicago. You have touched my life.

Jesse Jackson’s - Wattstax Music Festival Opening Speech (1972) YouTube video by Nightloop

I. AM. SOMEBODY. ✊🏽

Rest in Power, Reverend Jesse Jackson.

youtu.be/NTVwT3j_zqY?...

Thank you so much! 😊

It's Important I Remember - Northwestern University Press An incantation of strength and solace for persisting in twenty-first-century America“History doesn’t repeat, it rhymes.” In his sweeping third collecti...

Congratulations to contributor @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social on the publication of IT'S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER from @nupress.bsky.social

@nupress.bsky.social asked me for words to help contextualize the arrival of IT'S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER in this socio-political moment. As the book is entering people's hands, I wanted to direct folks to that reflection: "Refusing the End of American History." Link in bio! ✊🏾

Thank you so much! 😊

Cortney Lamar Charleston, IT'S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER. Poems.

We love a book release! 🙌 Contributor @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social’s collection IT’S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER is out NOW from @nupress.bsky.social! buff.ly/LXCVUFh

Order the book directly from Northwestern University Press at the link. Use discount code “NUP2026” for 25% off your order: nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014964...

It’s official publication day for my newest full-length poetry collection, It’s Important I Remember! Thank you to the good folks at @nupress.bsky.social for their belief in this expansive and provocative work. I’m excited to let its meanings and power compound with my earlier books. ✊🏾

Got my first ever acceptance from Callaloo! Can scratch that one off the bucket list 🙂

Book cover in charcoal and grayscale featuring human figures holding masks to their face that depict, left to right, writer James Baldwin, activist Malcolm X, and musician Nina Simone.

Publication Day for my latest collection is just one week away. Wild. Order from nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014964... using the discount code NUP2026 for 25% off!

The work being done by these observers of ICE to document, illuminate, and share what is being done in Minneapolis, in below freezing temperatures, given all that has transpired is so remarkably courageous. They are being killed for that courage, as ICE further reveals their cruelty and cowardice.

A decade ago the warning was: “If they’re not coming for you now, they’ll come for you next.”

Next is now. And if you weren’t listening to those who knew then, it’s a good time to start.

EASY WAY TO HELP

The respectability policing that goes on after cops or federal agents (who are also cops, y'all) kill someone is always unbearable. Dissecting the actions of the victim, putting them on trial when they cannot defend themselves, declaring they should have done this or that. Did they deserve to die?!

People are going to try and lure you into debates about whether Maduro was a good guy or not and the thing is, it doesn’t matter for the purposes of discussing whether violent kidnappings and extrajudicial murders by the US government are ok. No, they aren’t! End of convo.

A coup and invasion. A military occupation and blatant resource extraction. And an example other autocrats may follow against less-powerful neighbors in the absence of international resistance. America just opened up a dangerous box. Because we couldn’t clean up our mess at home, we’re exporting it.

I need more folks to consciously accept that aiding and abetting genocide with our money and arms made safeguarding democracy exceedingly more difficult than it already is.

You know, this makes me realize I can’t recall the last time I heard any of these so-called leaders refer to themselves as “public servants”

Tomorrow night at The New School in NYC. Come join us!

Oh wow, a powerful man being held to account for breaking the law. Wild concept. Imagine we adopted that here in this country.

I lack trust and confidence in anyone who says “fascism” here and now in the US, but couldn’t say “genocide” then and there about Gaza, or can’t say it now.