Poets

By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, Button Poetry hopes to broaden poetry’s audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.

Phil SaintDenisSanchez is a poet from New Orleans. His work has appeared in Best New Poets, Poetry International, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. His poem “monarchs are the communication medium for when i die” was a finalist for… MORE

Neil Hilborn is a best-selling author and, with over 150 million views to his credit, he is the most-watched poet ever. He has performed in 41 states and 8 countries, and in 2019 alone he drove coast to… MORE

Eric Sirota is a Best of the Net nominated poet, rapper, and public interest housing lawyer based in Chicago. His first chapbook, Holy Days, was published by FreezeRay Poetry in 2017, and his second, Giveth & Taketh, by… MORE

Zach Goldberg is a writer, educator, and arts administrator from Durham, NC. He is the author of XV (Nomadic Press, 2020) and the winner of the 2021 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest. A former member of the 2018 and… MORE

Topaz Winters is the Singaporean-American author of So, Stranger (Button Poetry 2022) & Portrait of My Body as a Crime I’m Still Committing (Button Poetry 2019 & 2024). She serves as editor-in-chief of Half Mystic Press, an independent, international, & interdisciplinary publishing… MORE

Ollie Schminkey (they/them) has spent the past decade coaching, mentoring, teaching classes, and running workshops for poets. They were the winner of the 2024-25 Palette Previously Published Poem Prize, and their work has been featured everywhere from Poets.org… MORE

Mwende “FreeQuency” Katwiwa is a Kenyan, Immigrant, Shoga|Queer storyteller, speaker & feeler. The 2018 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, a 2017 TEDWomen speaker and ranked 3rd at the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam, FreeQuency is a… MORE

Edythe Rodriguez is an Upper Darby poet and copywriter, hardcore Bustelo drinker and non-violent Beyhive member. She is the first place winner of the 2022 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest, the 2022 Sandy Crimmins Poetry Prize from Philadelphia Stories,… MORE

DeShara is a queer, Black poet and visual artist. She co-founded Daughter’s Tongue (an all-women writing collective), worked as the Creative Director of Workshops at Winter Tangerine, and is a former member of the Youth Speaks Collective. She… MORE

Lara Coley is San Franciscan educator, living in France to save money on rent. She is a former fellow artist-in-residence at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, Co-Curator for VelRo Weekly Reading Series, Editor-in-Chief of Transfer Magazine, and… MORE