Sign in

Cortney Lamar Charleston

@bardsbesidebars.bsky.social
2K followers 441 following 191 posts

Poet & Author • TELEPATHOLOGIES (Saturnalia Books, 2017); • DOPPELGANGBANGER (Haymarket Books, 2021); • IT'S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER (Northwestern Univ. Press, 2026) www.cortneylamarcharleston.com/impo…

PostsRepliesMedia
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The first image presented here is the penultimate page of my most recent full-length poetry collection, IT'S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER, published earlier this year by @nupress.bsky.social.
On January 20, in the year of our Lord 2025, they will head to the Capitol wearing their hallmark red hats: by train, plane, automobile and foot. They will ignite into cheers when he steps through the double doors and descends the platform steps, flanked by dignitaries who worship and fear him how no mortal should be worshipped or feared. In the antithesis of poetry, a man referred to as the chief justice will lead him through a sacred oath—right hand to God, left on the Bible—and he will assume the office of the presidency once again. Thereafter, he will proceed to make the oath meaningless. He will keep only the promises he made behind closed doors. He will reign rather than preside and, I envision, doves will fall dead from the sky, silver bullets still inside their bodies.Announcing the Winner of the 2026 Chad Walsh Chapbook Series:

Cortney Lamar Charleston for his collection, A Republic, If

Cortney Lamar Charleston is the author of three full-length poetry collections: Telepathologies (Saturnalia Books, 2017), selected by D.A. Powell for the 2016 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize; Doppelgangbanger (Haymarket Books, 2021), named a best book of 2021 by the New York Public Library and The Boston Globe; and It’s Important I Remember (Curbstone Books/Northwestern University Press, 2026). He was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and he has also received fellowships from Cave Canem and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Winner of a Pushcart Prize, his poems have appeared in POETRY, The Nation, The Atlantic, The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review and many other periodicals and anthologies. Charleston currently serves on the Haymarket Books Poetry Advisory Board.
111
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
I was very fortunate to have this conversation with Anthony Borruso that moves from hoops to poetry and hope, focusing much on my latest collection, IT’S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER. Head over to Divedapper to see what we discussed. 🙂 www.divedapper.com/interview/co...
divedapper.com
DIVEDAPPER // Cortney Lamar Charleston
"I wanted to return to the archives."
010
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Indicting Raúl Castro, huh? Looks like the next theater of war might be upon us soon. But it still won’t stop the empire from crumbling.
1167
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
In These Times @inthesetimes.com · 12/05/2026
“Nowhere in the world are crusades for liberation disconnected from one another.” @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social introduces three poems from "It’s Important I Remember" tracing links between U.S. militarism, Black resistance, Palestine, policing & empire. inthesetimes.com/article/conn...
inthesetimes.com
Notes on Our Connected Crusades for Liberation
Three poems from Cortney Lamar Charleston's new collection, "It's Important I Remember."
076
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Catch me in conversation tonight with Emily Holland, editor of Poet Lore, about my new collection—IT’S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER—and the craft of poetry! RSVP to get the free link here: writer.org/event/cortne...
061
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
I’m back in my old digital stomping grounds today at @therumpus.net with a new poem for National Poetry Month! My gratitude goes to Emma Hyche, janan alexandra and Monica Romo Masiello for inviting me to participate in this year’s series! therumpus.net/2026/04/02/s...
therumpus.net
Super Bowl LX: BENITO - The Rumpus
Meaning the Boricua, not the brutish brain that argued Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State; meaning the man of the island outside US borders but not outside U...
111
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
My granny called to tell me she read my new 250-page book in two days and she “don’t be reading like that” and “doesn’t really know how to read poetry” but she was able to make sense of what I wrote because it read like history so what I’m saying is that I just won the Nobel Prize in Literature!
3923
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
I was so excited to have this conversation with @recycledgiraffe.bsky.social for @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social. Her questions exposed such deep care for and consideration of the text and many layers of IT’S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER. I hope you check it out!
041
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
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!
071
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
@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!
062
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
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.
020
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
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 🙂
1154
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Any leads, y’all? 🙂
010
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
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!
051
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
South Korea ahead of America on beauty products and everything else I guess
030
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks.org · 17/02/2026
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:
redemmas.org
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.
0259
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
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.
061
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 17/02/2026
I. AM. SOMEBODY. ✊🏽 Rest in Power, Reverend Jesse Jackson. youtu.be/NTVwT3j_zqY?...
youtu.be
Jesse Jackson’s - Wattstax Music Festival Opening Speech (1972)
YouTube video by Nightloop
132901826
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
The Cincinnati Review @cincinnatireview.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Congratulations to contributor @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social on the publication of IT'S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER from @nupress.bsky.social
buff.ly
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...
152
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
@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! ✊🏾
020
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
Split Lip Magazine @splitlipthemag.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
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
Cortney Lamar Charleston, IT'S IMPORTANT I REMEMBER. Poems.
1104
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
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. ✊🏾
1112
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Got my first ever acceptance from Callaloo! Can scratch that one off the bucket list 🙂
0121
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
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!
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.
0103
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
Clint Smith @clintsmithiii.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
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.
1587165
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
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.
060
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 07/01/2026
EASY WAY TO HELP
0247124
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
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?!
91350318
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 03/01/2026
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.
51197475702
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
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.
040
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
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.
030
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
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”
28516
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Tomorrow night at The New School in NYC. Come join us!
020
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Oh wow, a powerful man being held to account for breaking the law. Wild concept. Imagine we adopted that here in this country.
191
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
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.
082
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
If you want to kill the truth, you kill the truth tellers. That’s what they’ve been doing, are doing, will do. With our weapons and approval.
042
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
You don’t get spared just because you don’t pay attention to it. In fact, inattention is how you guarantee it.
052
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Hope is on the menu in New York City
030
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
I'm elated to share the cover for my next poetry collection, It's Important I Remember, due out 2/15/2026 from Northwestern University Press and now available to pre-order. I pray that these words move you; may they be part of a movement toward one another and away from tyranny.
25015
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Poets! For the first time ever, I'm available for consultations on your full-length and chapbook manuscripts, as well as assorted packets. You can find details around services and pricing at the link in my bio. I look forward to working with you and delighting in your poems!
050
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
I'm kicking off National Poetry Month at the Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day series! You can read my new poem, "Magnitude and Bond," at the link below. Special thanks goes to Willie Perdomo for making space for me and these words this month. poets.org/poem/magnitu...
poets.org
Magnitude and Bond
that which is betwixt us of the lampooned lips and noses
0194
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Barely lol
090
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Poetry is what you find in the dirt in the corner, overhear on the bus, God in the details, the only way to get from here to there. —Elizabeth Alexander, “Ars Poetica #100: I Believe”
040
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Critiques of capitalism aside for a moment, we should ask why a man of such demonstrable greed is willing to lead a "transition" where the equities markets are driven into the ground and prices on working people are shot to the moon. None of the possible answers are good news.
260
Reposted by Cortney Lamar Charleston
John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 07/03/2025
NEW: The actions of Trump and Vance in recent weeks highlight something under-appreciated. The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west). My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...
12538951762
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Whomever is advising the Democrats is on the other team.
040
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Stripping away your healthcare. Going to gut Social Security. Destroying the value of your retirement accounts. And you're clapping for it like a seal because you hate people even more than you love yourself. Couldn't be me.
040
Cortney Lamar Charleston @bardsbesidebars.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
John Cena turned heel. We’re in uncharted waters as a people.
010