Two Cent Talks: Lauren Saxon and Emerson Whitney

Two Cent Talks: Lauren Saxon and Emerson Whitney

Emerson Whitney is the author of Daddy Boy (McSweeney’s 2023), Heaven (McSweeney’s 2020), and the poetry title, Ghost Box (Timeless Infinite Light, 2014). Emerson’s work has appeared in The Paris Review, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. Kirkus, in a starred review, called Heaven “An incisive, nuanced inquiry into gender and body.” The Paris Review called Emerson “…a deft executor of their own unique style… a writer who guides with an intuitive vulnerability and honesty.” In a second review, Kirkus compared Emerson to Gertrude Stein, and said that they “energetically and incisively captures all of that complexity and more, demonstrating a kindred spirit to Stein’s but emerging with a voice all their own.” Emerson recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in gender studies at the University of Southern California and teaches in the BFA creative writing program at Goddard College

Lauren Saxon is a queer, Black poet and engineer living in Portland, ME. She loves her cats, her Subaru, and spending way too much time on twitter (@Lsax_235). Lauren’s work is featured in Barrelhouse, Empty Mirror, Across the Margin, Homology Lit, and more. Her debut chapbook, “You’re My Favorite” won the 2023 Maine Literary Award for Book of Poetry, and is out now with Thirty West Publishing.