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
June Poets
Kristina Byas
Kristina Byas is a writer who often explores the psychological landscapes of the human experience, focusing on identity and the inner and outer conflicts that shape how people move through the world. Her work has been featured in Gypsophila, Prosetrics, and Fieldwren, and her debut poetry collection, Intrusive Thoughts, was released in 2024. Find her on Instagram at @KristinaByas_
Shavahn Dorris-Jefferson
Shavahn Dorris-Jefferson is a writer and educator living in the suburbs of Chicago. Her work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Rattle, Off Assignment, Painted Bride Quarterly, Cimarron Review, Carve Magazine, Salamander, The Baltimore Review, Sugar House Review, and other journals. She’s received support from Vermont Studio Center, Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency, and The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Essays, and Best New Poets. She earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is the former co-poetry editor for The Maine Review.
Jess Tønseth Lee Gleason
Jess Tønseth Lee Gleason is a queer, disabled poet, graduate of the Bennington Writing Seminars, who works in the medical field, and lives in Jamaica Plain, MA.
Shane Moran
Shane Moran is a poet and writer whose work explores the intersections of memory, place, and devotion. He was shortlisted for the 2025 Vallum Chapbook Award and is a recipient of an American Poets Prize. He has been featured in The Common Online and is forthcoming in spring printed edition of The Common. A graduate of William & Mary, he is currently studying and writing at NYU’s Low-Residency MFA Writers Workshop in Paris. Dividing his time between Richmond, New York City, and Paris, he is always eager to talk about God, poetry, love, and grief—if you can find him.
Jingyu Li (李静雨)
Jingyu Li (李静雨) is a poet and translator born in Beijing, China. She immigrated to the states at the age of three and grew up in Wyoming. She studied computer science and mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is currently pursuing her MFA in poetry at The University of Texas at Austin. Her work can be found in The Adroit Journal, Bombay Lit, The Margins, Sundog Lit, Rust & Moth, and others. She has two small kittens and a metaphysical dog named Doug. Her favorite food is hotpot which she eats on a weekly basis.
Stefanie Zito
Stefanie Zito is an interdisciplinary artist and writer based in Pittsburgh whose practice is grounded in ecology, walking, and sustained attention to material and place. Working across fiber, installation, and language, she explores tension between the domestic and the wild, permanence and impermanence, structure and transformation. She is a Certified Permaculture Designer, a graduate of the New York Center for Arts and Media Studies, and a current MFA candidate at Carnegie Mellon University. Her work has been shown internationally, including at Contemporary Craft, Fiberart International, Atlantic Gallery, World of Threads Festival, and the International Art Textile Biennale. She lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and two sons.
M. Anne Avera
M. Anne Avera is a writer of Southern gothic prose and poetry from Auburn, Alabama. A member of the 2025/26 Lighthouse Poetry Collective, her work has appeared in Waxing + Waning, Third Wednesday, The Awakenings Review, and elsewhere. She is the author of the debut poetry collection Complete and Total Honesty (Neon Origami Press). Find her at http://writeranneavera.ghost.io/ or on Instagram (at)prosperity.anguish.
Desirae Chacon
Desirae Chacon writes poetry that ranges from the simple joys of a personified Dandelion who has deep intellectual thoughts of its purposes when others wish upon it to the devastating fresh after effects of the loss of precious human life after nuclear warfare. She loves writing with a purpose to enhance humanism and to write with a sense of depth for others to enjoy the richness of life’s treasures. As a participant in the performing arts she infuses her writing with a cinematic approach for one of the stylistic forms you can see through her writing. Desirae was previous published by Brattle Street Review and she is grateful to expand her poetry by contributing to Tupelo Press as well. You can find her previously published work in the Kindle or print edition of: Brattle Street Review: An Anthology.
Heather Frankland
Heather Frankland holds an MFA and a MPH from New Mexico State University. She was a Peace Corps and Peace Corps Response Volunteer in Peru and Panama. Her poetry chapbook, “Midwest Musings,” was published Fall 2023 by Finishing Line Press. She has been published in ROAR, Thimble Lit, Sin Fronteras Press, and others. She attended the Marge Piercy Intensive Poetry Workshop in 2022. Originally from Indiana, she currently lives in Silver City, NM where she teaches English at Western New Mexico University and serves as the poet laureate of Silver City and Grant County.
John Hanright
John Hanright is a Cape Cod-based poet, playwright, and actor. An alum of both Cape Cod Community College and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, John’s work has been featured in Sea Change Magazine and Temper Literary Review. He is currently revising his poetry chapbook, Unrequited.
Jillian Humphrey
Jillian is a gardener, mother, and practicing poet. She earned her BA from Malone College and Masters from Kent State University, and she currently lives with her husband, three children, and golden retriever puppy in Ohio. She spends most of her time doing the invisible, repetitive acts of caretaking and homemaking. The mundane, midwestern, and mystical are prominent themes in her work.
Shane Moran
Shane Moran is a poet and writer whose work explores the intersections of memory, place, and devotion. He was shortlisted for the 2025 Vallum Chapbook Award and is a recipient of an American Poets Prize. He has been featured in The Common Online and is forthcoming in spring printed edition of The Common. A graduate of William & Mary, he is currently studying and writing at NYU’s Low-Residency MFA Writers Workshop in Paris. Dividing his time between Richmond, New York City, and Paris, he is always eager to talk about God, poetry, love, and grief—if you can find him.
Hali Sofala-Jones
Hali Sofala-Jones is a Samoan American writer from Eatonton, Georgia. Her work appears in or is forthcoming from The Rumpus, Main Street Rag, Slipstream, CALYX, The Missouri Review, Blue Mesa Review, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series. She is the author of Afakasi | Half-Caste (Sundress Publications, 2019). She teaches in Middle Georgia and enjoys traveling with her family and watching her daughter play softball. Learn more at halisofalajones.com.
Christina Vagenius
Christina Vagenius is a writer and artist of multiple mediums, including papercut illustration and ceramics. She has received numerous awards for her children’s book, The Gift as well as an SCBWI manuscript prize for her middle grade novel, The Forest Heart. She was a Top-25 ArtPrize Artist as well as the creator of numerous art camps for children. Christina lives on the shores of Lake Michigan with her husband where she teaches yoga and meditation at her local studio, offering a range of modalities to bridge body, mind and creativity. When she’s not writing, you can find her snuggled with a cat waiting on the perfect rainy day.
Sonya Wohletz
Sonya Wohletz is a poet whose work has appeared in Latin American Literary Review, Blue Unicorn, Roanoke Review, Thimble Literary Magazine, and others. Her first collection of poetry, Bir Sıra Sonra/One Row After, was published by First Matter Press in 2022, and her second collection, +Milklings+, is forthcoming from South Broadway Press. She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee.
April 2026 30/30 PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
The volunteer poets for April are Maureen Alsop, Bob Bradshaw, Sarah Carson, Stan Galloway, Ava Hu, Sergiy Pustogarov, Nate Raum, Daniel Avery Weiss, and MK Zariel.
March 2026 30/30 PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
The volunteer poets for March are Kathleen Bednarek, Mymona Bibi, Susan Hankla, Amy Haworth,Elizabeth McGraw, Christina McCleanhan, and Alexis Wolfe
FEBRUARY 2026 30/30 PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
The volunteer poets for February are Kristine Anderson, Barbara Audet, Bee Cordera, Ashby Logan Hill, Amy Marques, Sonia Sophia Sura, and Samuel Spencer.
JANUARY 2026 30/30 PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
The volunteer poets for December are Tess Adams, Haley Bosse, Jess Bowe, Joanna Lee, Thomas Page, Sarah Paley, and Amy Snodgrass.
December 2025 30/30 Project Participants
The volunteer poets for December are Kate Bowers, Katie Collins, Ellen Ferguson, Chris Fong Chew, Davis Hicks, Victor Barnuevo Velasco, Jen Wagner, and Stacey Walker.
November 2025 30/30 Project Participants
The volunteer poets for November are Megan Bell, Jono Crefield, Alison Lake, Maya Cheav, Jada D’Antignac, Laurie Fuhr, Dominic Leach, Dawn McGuire, and Samantha Murphy
October 2025 30/30 Project Participants
The volunteer poets for September are Lilly Frank, Anna Ojascastro Guzon, Kathryn Johnson, Kimberly McElhatten, and H.T. Reynolds
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