W. Luther Jett is a native of Montgomery County, Maryland and a retired special educator. His poetry has been published in numerous journals, including The GW Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Bourgeon, New Verse News, Potomac Review, Little Patuxent Review, Third Wednesday, Live Encounters, Tuck Magazine, Algebra of Owls, and Main Street Rag.
His poems have also appeared in several anthologies, including Proud to Be (Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2013), Written in Arlington (Paycock Press, 2020), The Great World of Days (Day Eight, 2021), and 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium (Ashland Poetry Press, 2021).
He is the author of five poetry chapbooks: Not Quite: Poems Written in Search of My Father (Finishing Line Press, 2015), Our Situation (Prolific Press, 2018), Everyone Disappears (Finishing Line Press, 2020), Little Wars (Kelsay Books, 2021), and Watchman, What of the Night? (CW Books, 2022). His full-length collection Flying to America was released by Broadstone Books in 2024.
Luther’s poem “Holding” received an honorable mention in 2015 from Delaware Literary Connections. In 2001, Luther’s poem “Girls in Blue Dresses” placed first in a contest sponsored by Argonne House Press/Wordwrights Magazine. He was also a first-place winner in the 2010 Jean Stainback Schmidt Memorial Poetry contest for his poem “The Chalk House.” His poem “Love Song for a Dismembered Country” was selected as a finalist in the Third Wednesday Poetry Contest in 2018. Luther was a winner in the Moving Words Poetry competition sponsored by the city of Arlington, VA in 2011 and again in 2021. His poem “Zeta” was named a co-winner in the 2022 American Writers Review competition, sponsored by San Fedele Press. Most recently, Luther’s poem “How Many Fingers,” published in Bourgeon, was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize.
Luther is the facilitator of a monthly virtual open mike sponsored by the Hyattstown Mill Arts Project in Hyattstown, Maryland. He also coordinates two monthly on-line poetry critique workshops.
Paperback: 54 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (November 16, 2024)