Lauren T. Yates

Participating in a poetry slam wasn’t on my 2025 bingo card but here we are!

I’m watching Paris Is Burning and someone outside my house is blasting Got to Be Real.

My neighborhood pizza shop is under new MGMT. I asked for fried onions on my cheesesteak and got red onions. RED. ONIONS.

I shouldn’t be crying over a man who listens to Creed.

MUSTARDDDDDDDD

Performing a Grammy Award-winning diss track at the Super Bowl Half Time Show is such a flex.

i think my favorite kind of music is lyrics depressing af but with a beat that makes me wanna throw some ass

Who else has someone they’ve matched with on multiple apps over the years yet have never been on a date with that person?

The urge to let out a primal scream while in pigeon pose.

This is why my bio reads “Millennial Fossil.”

I never understood the musicians playing music while the Titanic sank.

Now I do.

Currently in the chicken nuggets and Paramore stage of post-dystopian regression.

I say my primary special interest is pop culture, but it’s actually etymology.

My first and last name haven’t been available to me as a social media handle since 2006.

Submit to the 2025 Gatewood Prize! Judge: Ae Hee Lee Dates: January 1, 2025 - March 31, 2025 Contest Fee: $25 (or $30 with a book from the Switchback Catalog) Switchback Books is now open for submissions! We welcome manuscripts for the 2025 Gatewood Prize contest, judged by Ae Hee Lee. The Gatewood Prize is Switchback Books' annual competition for a first or second full-length collection of poems by a woman or non-binary writer. It is named after Emma Gatewood, the first woman to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. We're proud to be carrying on the Switchback tradition of publishing exciting work by emerging women and non-binary poets. Past winners include Cynthia Arrieu-King, Jordan E. Franklin, Marisa Crawford, and Jennifer Tamayo.

Women and non-binary poets for a first or second collection 🫶😘