Carolyn Zaikowski is the author of the hybrid/prose poetry novel In a Dream, I Dance by Myself, and I Collapse (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016) and the 2025-2027 Poet Laureate of Easthampton, MA. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Washington Post, Alaska Quarterly Review, Everyday Feminism, DIAGRAM, West Branch, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University and works as a creative writing instructor and volunteer death doula in Western Massachusetts, USA. Find her at www.carolynzaikowski.com [2] and carolynzzz.substack.com.