Welcome to the 30/30 Project, an extraordinary challenge and fundraiser for Tupelo Press, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) literary press. Each month, volunteer poets run the equivalent of a “poetry marathon,” writing 30 poems in 30 days, while the rest of us “sponsor” and encourage them every step of the way.
THE 30/30 PROJECT: VOLUNTEER POETS
October Poets
Lilly Frank
Lilly is a twenty-three-year-old poet based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her work delves into themes of loss, healing, and the complexities of human emotion. Her debut collection, Nobody Here Knows How to Grieve, explores the raw, often unspoken experiences of grief and personal growth, resonating deeply with readers navigating their own emotional landscapes.
Her poetry is shaped by a diverse range of literary influences, from the introspective depth of Savannah Brown to the gritty realism of Charles Bukowski, and the use of confession as a ritual from Anne Sexton.
Anna Ojascastro Guzon
Anna Ojascastro Guzon is a writer, mother, teacher, former physician, and co-founder of YourWords STL, an arts and education nonprofit. She received an MD from the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Medicine and an MFA from The New School Graduate Writing Program. Her writing may be found in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Best American Poetry Blog, Bone Bouquet, The Boiler Journal, and Bellingham Review among other publications. Her full-length book of poetry, A Moth Collection, will be published by Finishing Line Press in May 2026.
Kate Johnson
Kate Johnson is a leadership and organizational development consultant who treats language with the same care she brings to cultivating leaders: with empathy, curiosity, and a steady commitment to practice. Based in Dayton, Ohio, she runs onetwentythree ltd, where she helps organizations design human-centered talent strategies. Her professional work is rooted in discipline—building frameworks, advising executives, and designing programs that last—yet her creative life insists on play, wonder, and words. As the host of the comfy chairs podcast and author of Drawing Tomorrow, a workbook for creating a personal vision statement, she blends storytelling and scholarship, drawing connections between how we live, how we learn, and how we lead. Writing daily is, for her, an act of devotion, quiet proof that creativity thrives on structure and love in equal measure.
Kimberly McElhatten
Kimberly McElhatten is a writer and editor whose work has been published in Hard Freight, Bridge Lit Journal, and elsewhere. She serves the editorial teams at Brevity Magazine, Fourth River Literary Magazine, and Autumn House Press and chairs the committee for the Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia Book of the Year.
Her work-in-progress, Deep Time Appalachia, traces the natural history of the Southern Alleghenies and the Allegheny Plateau from the Big Bang through the opioid crisis. Find her at openroads.life.
H.T. Reynolds
H.T. Reynolds is a teacher and father whose work has appeared in Moonstone Arts Center, The Rising Phoenix Review, Rust & Moth (forthcoming), and his poetry collection, Chatter in the Skull, from BookLeaf Publishing. He holds an M.A. and M.F.A. from Wilkes University, where he was awarded the Beverly Blakeslee Hiscox '58 Scholarship.
September 2025 30/30 Project Participants
The volunteer poets for September were: Yael Valencia Aldana, Catherine Bai, Danielle Boodoo-Fortune, Kimberly Gibson-Tran, Kendra Brooks, Yvette Perry, Abigail Ardelle Zammit, and Amber Wei
August 2025 30/30 Project Participants
The volunteer poets for September are: Allison Baldwin, Daniel Becker, Ayana Cole Fletcher, Jaclyn Youhana Garver, Shivani G, Beth Siciliano, Ariana Suits, and Benin Lemus