Sign in

Keith S. Wilson

@keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social
854 followers 154 following 128 posts

Poet / Faculty @spaldingwriting.bsky.social

PostsRepliesMedia
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I've been making animated translations of the visual poems from my second book, Games for Children, for places that invite me to read. This piece first appeared as a visual poem in the Georgia Review keithswilson.com/wp-content/u...
keithswilson.com
030
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I'm thrilled to announce I was awarded a Woodberry Poetry Room Fellowship at Harvard! Haven't decided the exact dates, but I'm excited to be back in a library researching and making weird visual / interactive poems! Thanks to Woodberry Poetry Room!
Harvard Library logoAnnouncement of Poetry Room recipients, Keith S. Wilson and Janaka Stucky
5130
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
I just wanted to boost the cool work Hyejung Kook and the other folks at Barahm Press so. They published this math (?) spell (?) poem I wrote called "Minor Protection Spell: Tangent" a couple years ago, and I think they do beautiful work! www.barahmpress.com/folio/wilson
barahmpress.com
Wilson — 바람 I Barahm Press
183
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
For the teachers! I added a section at the bottom of my guide for reading and writing visual poems that allows you to download the entire packet as a single PDF, or as chapters. This should make it far easier to print out. You can find everything here: keithswilson.com/secret-page/
keithswilson.com
Secret Page – Keith S. Wilson
132
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I got asked such thoughtful questions in this interview by Meghan Elizabeth Kelley! I really want to thank her for the work she did on this Link here: www.riverheronreview.com/conversation...
riverheronreview.com
...with Keith S Wilson by Meghan Elizabeth Kelley — River Heron Review
Keith S. Wilson is a poet, game designer, and multimedia artist. He is an Affrilachian Poet, a Cave Canem fellow, and a recipient of an NEA Fellowship, a Kenyon Review Fellowship, and a Stegner Fellow...
030
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I created a reading guide for visual poetry! It's designed as a companion piece to my book Games for Children, but I wrote and designed it so it would be useful for readers and teachers of any visual poetry collection. Good for the Sealey Challenge! Link: keithswilson.com/secret-page/
0155
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Greek myth appears a lot in my work, but this poem from my first book Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love is all about the Odyssey. Or all about being an astronaut. Or... Full text can be found at: www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Matt Damon as Odysseus
Text from Heliocentric. See link for a better way to read this poemText from Heliocentric. See link for a better way to read this poem
141
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Nathan J Robinson: Instead of discussing how Elon Musk is now the world's first trillionaire, we should talk about how he killed hundreds of thousands of people through his dismantling of food and medical aid to poor countries www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-elo...
currentaffairs.org
How Elon Musk Killed Hundreds of Thousands of People
Former USAID global health official Nicholas Enrich explains the catastrophic human toll of DOGE's cuts to the agency.
35855443
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Come to tomorrow's free event to see me and Callie Siskel! Thanks to The Notebooks Collective!!! Register here: thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-con...
thenotebookscollective.com
In Conversation: Keith S. Wilson & Callie Siskel
We are excited to host Keith S. Wilson & Callie Siskel in conversation about their recent books: Keith’s Games for Children and Callie’s Two Minds. Books that center absence and reimaginings. Keith S.
020
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
The Notebooks Collective @notebookscltv.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
June's In Conversation is between poets @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social & Callie Siskel. Join us on June 9th. thenotebookscollective.com/event/in-con...
thenotebookscollective.com
In Conversation: Keith S. Wilson & Callie Siskel
We are excited to host Keith S. Wilson & Callie Siskel in conversation about their recent books: Keith’s Games for Children and Callie’s Two Minds. Books that center absence and reimaginings. Keith S.
032
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Something cool: I have some of my sentence diagram visual poems in in this anthropology studies anthology Naming and Being: Knowledges, Identities, and Cultural Politics. I actually have quite a few in here, but here are a few of them:
The book Naming and Being (blue paint strokes on a green background) on a black glass table. Beside the book is a succulent and a WW1 era windup duck.A visual poem. The title is "So... Where are you from?" It is a sentence diagram (lines that connect verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc) but all the words are missing. A photo of a page from the anthology. The page text is as follows:

35 The Cartography of a Name

Keith S. Wilson

"The Cartography of a Name" speaks directly to the way that Black people have traditionally had to adhere to the imperial standards of their country's language but move within it in ways that resist formalized boundaries-the "white space" of the page, the visual expressiveness of the diagrams, and the lyric language of the essay embodying, in one sense, a Black resistance movement. 

At the bottom is a visual poem. It is 4 sentence diagrams rotated at 45 degrees so that they form a square. The sentences being diagrammed are all the same: "you can't park here." The title of the poem is "Gated Community."A visual poem and sentence diagram. The sentence being diagrammed is "you are a wilson and a wilson never gives up." It is on a very high contrast map, with a label "negro houses"
140
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Check out this brilliant writing about my book Games for Children by Noah Warren in the latest Cleveland Review of Books. None of my screenshots give it justice: clereviewofbooks.com/poetry-and-t...
Photo of Games for Children, Rock Flight, and the other books mentioned in this essay.Keith Wilson: if (form===trap)

Keith Wilson's background in game design is reflected in Games for Children's flowcharts, matrices, and rogue sine waves. As such, the algorithm, for Wilson, signifies as a tangible series of operations and
logical moves, not as a mystified code. Indeed, the book functions as a primer in learning to think like a machine, prompting the reader through nested binary conditions toward aporia that reflect on the
conditions of American subjectivity. The simultaneity of vacuousness and motion seems to be the point. Inherent in the diagrammatic form is the argument that
experience is ultimately diagrammable, permutations of a few variables, a repetitive paint-by-numbers affair. The disorientation of encountering a poem that looks like this, and then trying to locate ourselves in its centripetal space, is its central emotional fact.
081
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
The Rumpus @therumpus.net · 28/04/2026
"i love a green-headed thing, / like a fly. / i love a beast / that is also an action" From "birdBlack," a new poem by @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social for National Poetry Month. ➡️ buff.ly/UGhfO6B
The cited quote and information written in black against a white background. At the top, the full Rumpus logo is within a blue circle. Several circles of varying size are on the left. To the right of this is the National Poetry Month logo.
071
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
My poem "I Find Myself Defending Pigeons" is in this cool new anthology, The New Sentience: Reimagining Animal Poetry! Not even the only poem about pigeons lol.
The book New Sentience. A blue amorphous shape, and below it a red one. On the blue shape, two abstractions of birds flying left. In the red shape, abstractions of a black horse and a green tree.
250
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
I was a finalist for the William Carlos Williams Award! Congrats to Diana Arterian, and to the other finalists! The Poetry Society of America @poetrysociety.org is featuring one of the poems from my book, Games for Children called Seraphim: poetrysociety.org/poems/seraphim
poetrysociety.org
Seraphim
Placing poetry at the crossroads of American life since 1910.
140
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
I have 7 short ekphrastic bird poems up at The Rumpus! Here's three of them—the rest can be found here: therumpus.net/2026/04/27/n...
Rose-breasted Grosbeak: Large finch, black head, back, bright red breast, A common grackle: a small black bird with some green in its head feathers.II. Common Grackle

i might go
to extremes. i am italicized
and a color that cannot be.
turquoise and purple and brown 
and all the coloreds in between, 
where light troubles itself 
trying to decide. when i open my mouth
what you hear is common
grackle sounds.III. Rose-breasted Grosbeak

i am an injury. i can 
love through anything. but will i?
i take the question side-ways. 
i move like the end of a rope swings
when the wind calls it.
when it says my birthname, i call back,
and together, we make it happen
071
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
The Notebooks Collective @notebookscltv.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
We're thrilled to host @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social and Callie Siskel on June 9. Link to register coming soon. In the meantime, check out this brilliant animation...
121
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Didn't realize this had been published! Briana Reed did an awesome writeup of the design process of my book, featuring the arist who worked on my book (and cover!) Alex Guerra. It also covers the amazing convo I had with Chaun Webster & Douglas Kearney. milkweed.org/blog/changin...
A screenshot of the article linked to in the post. At the bottom, a photo of books on sale at the event by Keith S. Wilson, Chaun Webster, and Douglas KearneyArtist Alex Guerra and poet Keith S. Wilson holding the poetry book Games for ChildrenKeith S. Wilson speaking from a chair on stage. Douglas Kearney and Chaun Webster watch him speak. In the background, a projection of a diagrammatic poemKeith S. Wilson, Chaun Webster, and Douglas Kearney
232
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
I REALLY feel seen in this book review by Jeffrey Levine that just came out in the LA Review of Books. Really made my day "Violence often lacks intent. It requires only a system capable of assigning meaning after the impact." lareviewofbooks.org/article/game...
lareviewofbooks.org
Open Rehearsal | Los Angeles Review of Books
Keith S. Wilson’s visually experimental poetry examines the ‘asymmetries of risk’ and repetition to expose ‘how violence enters the body as habit.’
330
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
I have a short piece up on the male body and the art of looking at Good River Review! www.goodriverreview.com/post/there-a...
goodriverreview.com
There Are Some Things That Are Only Said in Looking
February 26, 2026 by Keith S. Wilson, poetry faculty  Where I live in Chicago, any restaurant that feels a little fancy will open their front door and go all out on those wrought-iron deck chairs. May...
073
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Graywolf Press @graywolfpress.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
🆕 on Lab Games: three interactive visual poems by @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social. Explore here: graywolflab.org/2025/12/12/t...
174
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
What an honor! My book Games for Children is on the short list of the Chicago Review of Books awards! Thanks @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social !
283
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Chicago Review of Books @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
"I want to know what I am capable of, or what language is capable of." Jackson Holbert's interview with @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social on his new book “Games for Children” (@milkweededitions.bsky.social) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/09/04/i...
chireviewofbooks.com
"I've Always Been Very Interested in Wonder": An Interview with Keith S. Wilson About "Games for Children" - Chicago Review of Books
Our interview with Keith S. Wilson about his new collection, "Games for Children."
054
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Copper Canyon Press @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
We're grateful for the Black poets whose work enriches, shapes, and challenges our poetry landscape. This week, we feature stunning poets: NIKKI WALLSCHLAEGER (@nikkimwalls.bsky.social), PATRICIA SPEARS JONES (@pksj51.bsky.social), KEITH S. WILSON (@keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social), and JUNE JORDAN.
Graphic featuring the cover of HOLD YOUR OWN by Nikki Wallschlaeger, a photo of the author, and a poetry excerpt from "Manifesto" that reads:

I’m putting this to paper before 
I lose my nerve, my courage,  
before this poem breaks from lies 
& I have to part ways with you.Graphic featuring the cover of THE BELOVED COMMUNITY by Patricia Spears Jones, a photo of the author, and a poetry excerpt from "Morning Glory" that reads:

blossom /
your hearty display for all to see, hold your /
vine’s haven on Macon Street. Only /
Winter, harsh winter will take your vines /
Back to the ground your wildness calmed.Graphic featuring the cover of FIELDNOTES ON ORDINARY LOVE by Keith S. Wilson, a photo of the author, and a poetry excerpt from "God Particle" that reads:

Dust motes and a million paths of light. / 
I know. / Eventually, it all comes down to an / admission. / Whatever my failings—didn’t I come to it, / eventually?Graphic featuring the cover of DIRECTED BY DESIRE by June Jordan, a photo of the author, and a poetry excerpt from "About Long Distances on Saturday" that reads:

and the answer is
that the question is

(isn’t it)
where are you going
baby

without me?
12511
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Steven Underwood @blaqueword.blacksky.app · 30/01/2025
In 6 yrs we will see movies about how being ICE agents made the ICE agents so sad.
299132171212
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
El Norte Recuerda @elnorterecuerda.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
This is a concentration camp. Don't let him or anyone call it a "migrant facility." apnews.com/live/trump-p...
apnews.com
Live updates: Trump wants to send immigrants who are in the US illegally to Guantanamo Bay
While signing the Laken Riley Act, President Donald Trump said he would direct the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay to hold up to 30,000 migrants who are living illegally in the United ...
04120
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Alex Zalben @azalben.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
In case it isn’t clear, this is a concentration camp. Please call your reps, tell them to demand complete stoppage of the use of Guantanamo Bay as a Trump’s concentration camp, and use that language so there’s no mistaking what we’re talking about here.
171409895
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
Thank goodness the TikTok ban is in effect and now no one can ever use my data for nefarious purposes.
251819258
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Rewatching interstellar and some of the dialogue in this movie is atrocious
120
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
capitalism is a plane that only has six people on it but still won't let any of those people move to the empty seats in first class
050
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
I am getting a lot of new follows from people recently adding bluesky. can I ask someone who followed me recently: how are you following people? Is bluesky recommending people you may know? I added this a while ago when it felt like there was only like 3 people on here so I'm not sure lol
380
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 08/11/2024
Folks: A number of the most committed fascist trolls are coming over here and trying to create a presence, presumably bc Xitter will quickly lose its value as everyone migrates. One way to combat them is to use @numb.comfortab.ly 's list to mass block them.
12326961170
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Sarah Tuttle @niais.cryptoanarchy.network · 07/12/2023
Today I learned that carbon footprints were invented by BP and pushed in a mega marketing campaign to shift the conversation from corporations to individuals and I hate everyone. Except NPR, thanks for the reporting.
461801541
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Steven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 01/11/2023
[finally standing up to a bully] hey asshole... [but remembering that first and foremost I am a poet] I will engulf you like a fog
212560614
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Jaws Slayer 🎃 @jesawyer.bsky.social · 31/10/2023
Parents... please check your children's candy tonight. I just went through Salomé Athena's haul and I found a copy of the Jorge Luis Borges short story collection "The Garden of Forking Paths". This metatextual exploration may be too advanced for young readers.
292002489
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 22/10/2023
I hate ice breakers but I just thought of one: name a time when you were flabbergasted I just want to see a room full of people reckon with the word flabbergasted
140
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 14/10/2023
i was born in the wrong decade: i was meant to be born in the future, at about 20 years after whatever year everything stops sucking
160
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 13/10/2023
i got to work with Louise Glück and met with her several times about my poetry. the last time, she said: "why do you keep looking at your phone?" that's where my poems were. Louise Glück workshopped with me all those times thinking i was like texting people the whole time
170
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 06/10/2023
more than once i have had a visual poem rejected for accessibility reasons—that when shrunk to the size of the page the text doesn't fit a size requirement what is interesting to me about this is thinking about what "legibility" is in a work of visual art
260
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 05/10/2023
capricorn is a reverse Blade. like it has all of the weaknesses of both animals. nature can be so cruel
000
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Derrick Austin @paradiselaust.bsky.social · 01/10/2023
This is a meme. Paul Sérusier made a meme in 1893. A deeply relatable queen, this woman in the rain.
081
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Derrick Austin @paradiselaust.bsky.social · 01/10/2023
This is by far the weirdest Monet I’ve ever seen. It’s giving The Others. It’s giving passage to the underworld. Maybe he should have gone down this road and been a symbolist.
041
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Derrick Austin @paradiselaust.bsky.social · 01/10/2023
The wet floor by the bowls is such a lively detail. I love finding those gestures. Also, the way the light catches in the paint gives this Bazille such a strange luminescent quality.
011
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 28/09/2023
i spend 15 minutes a day reading a book that was important to someone who is important to me and the percentage of them that i actually enjoy is low but it's still one of my favorite practices because you can talk to the person about the book or get to know them better
140
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 27/09/2023
every time i write there is a moment where i am scared i have forgotten how to write. every time i teach i am even more scared that i have forgotten how to teach
040
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 26/09/2023
i hate cross posting as a concept bc it always implies that the person posting the same thing twice thinks this post is a banger
150
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 26/09/2023
one of the most ridiculous aspects of social media are polls posted in order to decide things. there's something hilarious to me about someone being like "should I be vegetarian?" ... "polls are in: i will continue to consume flesh"
030
Reposted by Keith S. Wilson
Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh @artichokeheart.bsky.social · 20/09/2023
It has been a *forever* dream of mine to publish a book-length collection of fiction, and now my first book of short stories, Reveal Codes, winner of the 2022 Moon City Press Short Fiction Award, is available for preorder! www.uapress.com/product/reve...
Cover image for Reveal Codes, winner of the 2022 Moon City Press Short Fiction Award, a collection of short fiction by Lee Ann Roripaugh, featuring an up-tilted white mask surrounding by colorful graphics and emoji, against a gray background.
3398
Keith S. Wilson @keithwilsonpoet.bsky.social · 20/09/2023
today is a very sad but very important date to me and i am reminded of it each year bc it is also international talk like a pirate day and every year my aunt sends me a text message written in pirate
030