Good Monster

Antigua was award 1 of 23 Poet Laureate Fellowships by the Academy of American Poets to develop The Bread & Poetry Project, a three-part initiative that will uplift the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program, Antigua's Bread & Poetry Podcast (see below), and other local New Hampshire organizations. Antigua is also New Hampshire’s youngest poet laureate and first ever BIPOC poet laureate. Antigua’s first book, Ugly Music, won a Whiting Award. The selection committee noted: “Antigua's poems layer lyricism, religious language, and the tactile materials of daily life to build altars of affection for the people and things of her world. . . . Each poem is meticulously shaped by a formal and aesthetic vision that already feels authoritative.” Good Monsteris confessional and semi-autobiographical; it includes a series of “Diary Entry” poems, composed from the language of Antigua’s childhood journals Antigua is the creator and host of the interview-series podcast Bread & Poetryavailable on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. She is currently assembling an anthology of poems listeners have written using the prompts supplied at the end of the podcast episodes. Potential audiences: Survivors of domestic violence or sexual abuse; readers interested in poetry about mental and chronic illness; feminist readers; fans of the sonnet or “found” poetry ; fans of female BIPOC writers; fans of poet laureates’ work; readers interested in feminism and social activism