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
November Poets
Meg Bell
It’s been Meg Bell’s privilege to serve Fort Wayne, Indiana as a reference librarian for the past 13 years. When I am not working, I am spending time with my husband, two kids, and our dog. We enjoy spending time outdoors – riding bikes, hiking, and swimming. I dig all 70’s singer/songwriter music, any cat I meet and save all my extra pennies for travel.
Alison Lake
Alison Lake is a poet, wife, and mother living in central Michigan. Her first book, Everyday Kintsugi, is forthcoming from CavanKerry Press.
Maya Cheav
Maya Cheav is a 23-year-old Cambodian-American writer from Southern California, as well as the author of the poetry chapbooks, LYKAIA (Bottlecap Press, 2023) and TAN’S DONUTS (Chestnut Review, 2025). Their writing has been featured in Stone of Madness, ALOCASIA, Scapegoat Review, The Weaver, Across the Margin, and elsewhere. They were a top 10 finalist for the 2023 Palette Poetry Chapbook Prize, guest judged by Danez Smith, as well as a 2024 Tin House Workshop alum, under the faculty mentorship of Roy G. Guzmán. They were a 2024-2025 poet-in-residence with Collections of Transience and will be a Season 22 AWP writer-to-writer mentor. Their flash fiction is featured in the Kevin Atwater "Achilles" Literary Collection to accompany his song "Call of Duty."
Jada D’Antignac
Jada D’Antignac is a poetry author from Georgia. She has published three poetry collections: a pen will guide us home, stepping towards the mirror, and coming soon, under her pen name “nooneswatching.” She has been featured in Harness and TFB Magazine. Her poetry style flows between lyrical vulnerability and candid honesty. From a Saturday cookout to a Thursday night in bed, she can reveal the poetry in it all. Aside from writing, you can find her escaping time with her loved ones, drinking an iced coffee, or chatting about music. is a poetry author from Georgia. She has published three poetry collections: a pen will guide us home, stepping towards the mirror, and coming soon, under her pen name “nooneswatching.” She has been featured in Harness and TFB Magazine. Her poetry style flows between lyrical vulnerability and candid honesty. From a Saturday cookout to a Thursday night in bed, she can reveal the poetry in it all. Aside from writing, you can find her escaping time with her loved ones, drinking an iced coffee, or chatting about music.
Laurie Anne Fuhr
Laurie Anne Fuhr, Multimodal Poet of page, screen, and stage, is the author of night flying, published by Frontenac House (2018), shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. Her poems also appear in Uncommon Grounds, the first anthology of the Espresso Poetry Collective, a women’s poetry workshopping group of which she is a founder. Laurie is an active organizer of poetic events and member of the Writers Guild of Alberta, the League of Canadian Poets, and an educator with Poetry in Voice. She is a dedicated ally. Connect with Laurie on Facebook and Instagram @Multimodal_Poet..
D.C, Leach
D.C. Leach is a poet and translator based in Baltimore, MD. He holds an MFA in poetry from NYU’s Writers Workshop in Paris and an MA in Russian Translation from Columbia University. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Sargasso, The Sine Qua Non, and Meridian, and his haiku, under the name Dagwood Leach, appear in Modern Haiku, Bottle Rockets, and Kingfisher..
Dawn McGuire
Dawn McGuire has 4 collections, including "The Aphasia Cafe," (Indie Book Award for poetry) and "American Dream with Exit Wound" (2017) a finalist for the Northern California Book Award. She has appeared in numerous journals, including !proudly! the Tupelo Quarterly..
Samantha Strong Murphey
Samantha Strong Murphey has an MFA in Poetry from NYU’s Writer’s Workshop in Paris and has been supported by Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and Vermont Studio Center. She teaches creative writing at UT-Dallas and is a submission reader for new Dallas-based literary magazine Sine Qua Non. Her work has been published by Rattle and is forthcoming in the North American Review and Crab Creek Review. Before poetry, Sam worked as a journalist and has a rich and lengthy unwritten resume as a full-time caregiver to her three children, a rescue cat, and a rescue dog.
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