February Fantasies

by Olivia Loftis February 23, 2026

Our February fantasies come to fruition in the form of fresh opportunities, like our debut author special for one month only! We're looking forward to celebrating National Poetry Month and opening The Orchards: Summer 2026 to make publishing dreams come true—and in the meantime, to spending our weekends immersed in verse.

April Free for Emerging Authors

Kelsay Books is waiving our Alabaster Leaves reading fee for select submissions during National Poetry Month. Please visit this page for details.

Events

REMOTE: Anne-Marie Derouault presents Oceans and Orchids

Sunday, March 1, 11:00 a.m. Pacific / 2:00 p.m. Eastern

Please email me for the registration link

Oceans and Orchids by Anne-Marie Derouault

WILLIAMSBURG, VA: The Williamsburg Book Festival

Saturday, March 7, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at William & Mary School of Education

Patsy Asuncion, Heather Brown Barrett, and Loralee Clark are Exhibiting Authors

(Please email me if I overlooked that you are included in this lineup!)

Heather Brown Barrett is featured in:

Loralee Clark is featured in:

REMOTE: Centa Therese presents the myth of me

Thursday, March 26 6:00 p.m. Pacific / 9:00 p.m. Eastern

Please email me for the registration link

Awards

Navigation by Linda Neal Reising won the 2026 Gold Feathered Quill Book Award!

Reviews & Features

To Speak to Each Day in Its Own Language by Melissa Huff was reviewed by Quill & Parchment and Highland Park Poetry interviewed Huff ahead of her April 11 reading!

Stay tuned for the event details in our next blog.

Olivia Young featured Dear Letters in the Red Box by Sarah Stern in The Riverdale Press

William Barillas at Rust Belt Humanities Lab reviewed That's My Moon Over Court Street: Dispatches from a Life in Flint by Jan Worth-Nelson, a forthcoming Kelsay Books poet.

A sequence of Worth-Nelson's poems titled "One Tufted Bird" is included in a new anthology from Buckiham Fine Arts Project in Flint, MI here: https://www.amazon.com/Born-Such-Time-This-Collaborators/dp/B0FYPF8J9Q

Opportunities

March 15, 2026 Deadline:

Announcing the 2026
Able Muse poetry/flash fiction/book contests:

Submissions now open for
the Able Muse Write Prize & the Able Muse Book Award

Details:
ABLE MUSE WRITE PRIZE

May 19–22, 2026: The Poetry By The Sea Conference

We hope you will make plans to join us as we gather by the sea in 2026! We have Cornelius Eady as our Keynote Speaker, Jennifer Michael Hecht giving the craft lecture, an amazing workshop faculty, and a stellar lineup of readers to be announced soon. To read more about Cornelius Eady, please visit the website.

Book of the Month

Melinda Coppola penned her first poem—about the color pink—at the tender age of 8. Her relationship with writing was mercurial for decades, but once she learned that her blood type is, in fact, poet, she settled into a kind of quiet cohabitation with her muses.

Book Trailers

Preview new and noteworthy Kelsay Books and watch exclusive readings at YouTube.com/@KelsayBooks. Our latest Book Trailers are listed here.