Poets

Dana Gittings

Dana has been part of the DC Poetry Collective since April 2019. Her work explores themes such as alcohol misuse and recovery, identity, and desire. Dana is inspired by ecopoetics, surrealism, psychoanalytic theory, and spoken word, and likes to experiment with shape, ekphrastic, and found poetry. Her poetry has been featured in Abridged, Under the Basho, and Avatar, the literary magazine of St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Website: danagittings.com

Instagram: @poetryindc

Elizabeth Black

Elizabeth Black is a resident of Arlington, Virginia.  She recently retired from 40 years of nursing to work on poetry and art full time.  Her passion for art, art history, different cultures, gardening and the natural world have led her travel the world.  Although a latecomer to writing poetry, Elizabeth acknowledges her life-long love of poetry.  Her poetry has been published in Blythe Spirit, Bottle Rockets, Frogpond, Heron’s Nest, Modern Haiku, The Northern Virginia Review, and Verse Virtual. 

Julie Maurer

Julie has been a member of the DC Poetry Collective since May 2020 when she got bitten by the poetry bug after years in the world of prose. She is the author of the spiritual memoir Embracing the Unknown: One Woman’s Radical Decision to Turn Her Life Over to the Universe and the Radical Transformation that Follows. She is currently working on a collection of poetry with the working title Between Worlds. Julie lives in Rockville, MD, where she practices yoga, hangs out with her dog, Juno, and offers weekly meditation on Zoom with her husband, Jeff.

Website: juliemariamaurer.com

Keith David Parsons

Keith David Parsons (he/his) is a citizen-poet on the run from the law, yoga aficionado, and a stan without a country. Born in West Virginia, USA, between a crick and a hollar, he now lives in Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.

Twitter/Facebook: @Kristophanes

Instagram: @keithdavidparsons

LKN

LKN is an international page-performance-slam-street poet, since September 2017. He is published in four books in 3 countries. His poetry was shared in 1,700+ events across 16 countries, and showcased in events such as: History Channel’s HistoryCon, Poetry Festival Singapore and Toronto International Festival of Authors. He finished 1st runner-up at the Singapore Poetry Slam, and a finalist of the Toronto Poetry Slam. LKN is a busking-poet of Manila, Singapore and HK.

Instagram: @thelknpoetry

Mark Fishbein

Mark is the “host” of this creative gang. He calls the meetings and acts as the chair, but little more. He has been writing poetry for over 50 years and currently has five collections available on Amazon. Mark is also a guitarist in classical and samba style. Pre-COVID, he performed at poetry readings, art openings, bars and weddings. More information about his books and music are on his website.

Website: poetwithguitar.com

Martin Parker

Martin is a CAD, graphic, web and font designer, as well as aspiring poet. He has been fascinated by many aspects of language since childhood, including linguistics, calligraphy and poetry. Aside from exploring ways to share his poetry with the world, lately, Martin has been creating multilingual calligrams, like the one he made for the cover of iNK BLOTS. You can see more of his designs on his website.

Website: parquillian.com

Instagram: @parquillian

Rebecca Wener

Rebecca Wener lives in Silver Spring, MD. She works in public health as her day job, and has been writing poems on the side since high school. She loves prose poetry, narrative and image rich poetry, confessional poetry, and poetry that wrestles with feminist and overtly political themes. Lately she has also developed an affection for modern Arab poetry. Tracy K Smith, Marge Piercy, and Naomi Shihab Nye are all poetry heroes and she aspires to one day write a villanelle to rival Elizabeth Bishop. To date, she has been published in Beyond Words and Poetry Quarterly. 

Instagram: @pulpoperdida

Vadim Kagan

A frequent practitioner of fine wines, gourmet food and subtle texts, Vadim writes poetry and prose in English, Russian and, occasionally, in a combination of both languages. “I believe that all poems should rhyme!”

Twitter/Facebook: @vadimkagan

Instagram: @wines_and_rhymes

Zebra Black

Zebra has been writing poems for about four years after a career in the visual arts. Never once did it occur to him to write a single poem, and then all of a sudden… his poems remain explorations of the subconscious erotic and spiritual. They are lunar anamorphic streams of consciousness from the deep chaotic subterranean glitz of transgressive impulses we all share. He wants to shine light on this sacred dark thing that lives within him; it is from this great freedom that his poems emerge.