Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Noah David Roberts. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Noah David, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I have one answer to this question that comes to mind immediately, & that is “SWARM,” which is slated for release through Kith Books. “SWARM” is about a lot of things: wasps, trauma, dysphoria, revelation, insect, body. The background narrative of the book is pulled from a memory I have. You could consider myself as the speaker of the poems. This book feels like the next in a series of revelations for me. In “Mutable Forests,” (pub. 2023 Kith Books), the speakers of the poems grappled with identity & a more inward experience of gender. “SWARM” attempts to combine the outer experience of gender with the inner experience of gender through the use of the wasp / hornet motif. I wrote the book in summer of 2023, right before I started HRT. I always planned to edit the book after time away from it, to write pre-HRT & edit post-HRT, to share the full spectrum boy-girl. I also wrote “SWARM” at the same time I wrote “GUNK,” so it was an intense few months of writing.

Noah David, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Well, let’s start here: my name is Noah David Roberts. I am a poet & event coordinator in Philadelphia. If you want to organize a poetry event, let me know. I have also edited for a couple magazines — including one I took part in founding, titled Graphic Violence Lit — & am doing some event work with Saturnalia Books at current. I have poems published in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, fifth wheel press, Anti-Heroin Chic, Lightwood Press, & some other very wonderful poetry journals which I will not list here only for the sake of brevity. In 2021 I won the Judith Stark Poetry Prize, & have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize & the Elgin Award.

I host & take part in a lot of events in the Philadelphia poetry community. While I’m currently taking a hiatus from performing to work on a new project, I organize a monthly poetry reading named Scribes on South, have coordinated & hosted with other groups around the city (& elsewhere), & frequent many other events. Performance is as important as page, in poetry. There’s no way of escaping that; I always write for & from the ear.

My first three collections of poetry were self-released, back in 2017 & 2018. My next collection, “Final Girl Mythos,” was published through Legitimate Business Press, a press out in New Jersey run by the amazing Jennifer Dunford-Roskos, someone who has aided & abetted my poetry career many times since I met her years ago (love you Jen). “What I Do in the Dark” came out through Alien Buddha Press in 2023, quickly followed by “Mutable Forests,” published by Kith Books. My most recent release is “GUNK,” published by Querencia Press. “SWARM” is forthcoming through Kith Books as well.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think a goal of mine is poetry of the unattainable. If one’s goal is unattainable, but one is still reaching, what do you call it? I have the simplest of goals: write a great poem. I think many of us get bogged down with the social aspect of the creative spaces we exist within. I think in my case it led me to pander to a certain type of writing, a certain type of audience, for a little while. I would certainly love to be read, but what’s more important than that is the poem itself, always. I am always reaching for that impossibility, that lightning-in-a-bottle. It’s a moving target. I’m always aiming.

I always say poetry must blow a hole in something: this is the nugget inside of everything else as I approach the art form of the written word.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Chillsubs.com! This is a website where you can find magazines that are open for submissions. It is honestly the best resource for a writer looking to start submitting.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.noahodavidroberts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.apocalypse.poet/

Image Credits

Author Photo / Headshot: Lindsay hargrave
Poetry Must Blow a Hole in Something: Designed by Noah David Roberts
Mutable Forests Cover: Designed by Noah David Roberts
GUNK Cover: Designed by Emily Perkovich, Querencia Press
Mutable Forests Broadside: Designed by Noah David Roberts