Nicole “Nic” Jean Turner is the poet laureate of Worcester, Massachusetts, for 2026-2028; a hand-patched, sticker-smattered and snagged-lace-layered writer. She writes in cursive to hide butchered spelling that might otherwise raise suspicion about her master’s degree in writing. Write on,
Like watching a magician having you pull the card you picked out of some random stranger’s pocket.”
– Craig Clevenger
Author of The Contortionist’s Handbook, Dermaphoria, Mother Howl
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“You will find pieces of yourself inside her poems.“
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“I kept getting knocked over line after line.”
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“…as a reader I know that I’m not alone.“
hybrid works published in curated literary journals, magazines, and anthologies; maintaining a yearly publication streak since 2012
+ authored a book in 2020 and two chapbooks in 2017/2023
with The Underground Poetry Spot of Syracuse, NY, over a decade ago. Known by her stage name Nic Jean, she has strung literary heartstrings from the Pacific Northwest to New England and calls the Dirty Gerund Poetry Show home
writing with minimalist traditions in a post-confessional mode, intersecting fragmented voice-driven burnt tongue and layers of metaphor in both poetry and prose.
prefers to be described as one of them their writers in the diner cart dive bar
that in an age of exploitative viral soundbites, shrinking attention spans, and computer generated companionship, a newsletter is still worth as much of our time as a beer with a stranger in a dive bar
Find yourself between the lines
For the last fourteen years, this ‘ol blog feed has distributed my poetry. A mix of fresh new early drafts and previews of polished curated pieces published elsewhere. A few months ago, I started cross-posting those same poems to Substack, which has now grown to include pub announcements, a monthly email newsletter, and to be…
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WORCESTER, Mass. – City Manager Eric D. Batista announced Monday the appointments of the next City of Worcester Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate, which serve as official ambassadors for the city’s historic and vibrant culture of poetry and literature. After a competitive selection process, distinguished poet and community advocate Nicole “Nic” Jean Turner has…
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