POETRY & PROSE

FORTHCOMING

“a diagnosis III” and “a body that aches” in Love Me, Love My Belly zine from Porkbelly Press, 2024

“Thank you to a body” in Tiny Moments Lit Mag, Vol. 2, 2024

“Recipe for climate change”, “Climate change is”, and “A hoax” in Stormwash: Environmental Poems, 2024

“Women are dirty”, “We were almost erased”, and “Someone wants to kill me” in Sacred and Subversive: Queer Perspectives on the Future of Faith Communities, 2024

Poems in Please Say Dyke, 2024


PUBLISHED

“Warmer than you ever imagined”, “Women are dirty”, “Sweet”, “a diagnosis II”, and “A visit” in Darling Lit, December 17, 2023

“Ceasefire Cento”, a collaborative poem by Mosab Abu Toha, et al, in Vox Populi November 17, 2023

“A visit” in Impossible Archetype, #14, August 28, 2023

“I split this body” in A Body You Talk To: An Anthology of Contemporary Disability from Sundress Publications, June 10, 2023

“When you’ve got the bugs” in DC Pride Poems, June 17, 2022

“Where the quiet queers are”, “Dayenu”, and “How it feels” in lesbiennale Gallery in Brussels & Online, October 2021

“Ode to the Eastern Shore”, “The earth seems closer”, “Migration” in The Forgotten River: Anacostia Swim Club nature anthology, July 2021

“Flirting is a black hole” in Queer Cookies: A Poetry Series and Cookbook, July 2021

“When you fall” in WMN Zine: Issue 3, May 15 2021

“Forecast: 3018” in Paranoid Tree, May 10, 2021

“Forecast: 2031” in Queer Space Force from Neon Hemlock, May 2021

“The earth seems closer when it rains” in Unheard Poetry, April 22, 2021

“Forecast: 4086” in miniskirt magazine, April 7, 2021
nominated for Best of the Net: Fiction, 2021

“Earth, swallow me whole” and “Nasty beauty” in Lesbians are Miracles, March 11, 2021

Stunt Reclaims a Successful Black Business Woman’s History” in Lambda Literary Review, December 10, 2020 (book review)

The Future is Disabled: Planning for Climate Change Must Include People with Disabilities” in 350.org, December 3, 2020 (article)

Find us” and “Armpit arsonist” in Doubleback Review, October 15, 2020
“Armpit arsonist” was nominated for the 2020 Pushcart Prize

“My body is as old as precambrian earth,” “May the earth love you back,” “Water bear body,” “Dayenu,” “When you’ve got the bugs,” and “a bitch learns” in An Ocean of Possibilities: A Zine for Bisexual Visibility Week, September 23, 2020

“All aflame,” “Landscape,” and “Inhale” in Plants & Poetry, August 1, 2020

Instances of Head-Switching” in Washington Independent Review of Books, July 22, 2020 (book review)

Insomnia in a pandemic” in Split This Rock: Poems of Persistence, Solidarity, and Refuge, July 9, 2020

Ancestral nourishment” in Poetry X Hunger, May 2020

Not weak” and “When you love someone so much” in The Human Touch Journal’s The Curve special issue, April 2020

The Future is Disabled: Planning for Climate Change Must Include People with Disabilities” in Entropy Inherited newsletter, Jan. 28, 2020

Concerning Craft: Ode to the World Before Climate Change” in Little Patuxent Review, June 21, 2019

“Ode to the Eastern Shore” in Little Patuxent Review, Winter 2019

The Interplanetary Sanitation Workers Get Sent to Kepler-186F” in Paper Darts Cleanliness micro-fiction contest, Jan. 5, 2019

“Where the quiet queers are”, “Marsquake”, “half out”, “a bitch learns”, “When has blood ever stopped men”, and “When you hug a tree”, LOUD & QUEER 11: Queer History Zine, 2019

Wonder Women” reprinted in Metro Weekly spotlight on OutWrite 2018, Aug.2, 2018

Poems in Dwarf Artist Coalition’s “Looking Back & Looking Ahead” show at Little People of America Convention, July 2018

“It should be called womenstruate”, “2 minutes and 30 seconds”, and “At 13 I lived in the forest” in Stoked Words: An Anthology of Queer Poetry from the Capturing Fire Slam & Summit, June 2018

“Two-body problem” in Maryland’s Best Emerging Poets, Feb. 16, 2018

“Forecast: 2035” in Paper DartsDec. 13, 2017

“My body is as old as precambrian earth” in Rogue Agent, Dec. 1, 2017

“Sail to Jupiter with me” in Calamus Journal’s Alumni Issue, Nov. 1, 2017

How to Make Your Literary Magazine More Inclusive” in AWP’s The Writer’s Notebook, Oct. 16, 2017

It should be called womenstruate,” “The only awkward one,” “Migration,” and “Unfold me gently” in Noble/Gas Quarterly, Sept. 15, 2017

“Spider slayer” in Monstering, Aug. 9, 2017

Crumb-sized” poetry collection from Unnamed Press, Aug. 15, 2017

“This isn’t a poem about motherhood” and “Recipe to reduce pain” in Daughter, May 20, 2017

“On that one-way trip to Mars”, “Application to NASA”, “Moon, or no moon”, “The martian comes to me”, “A speck of pain”, “I give a cosmic middle finger”, “Aging with the solar system”, and “You magnify the universe” in The Deaf Poets Society’sCrips In Space” issue, May 4, 2017

“At 13 I lived in the forest” and “Tin•ni•tus” in Backbone Mountain ReviewMay 2017

“I am rotting log of wood”, “Harriet Tubman was disabled”, “Rikkud”, “How to feel beautiful”, and “Tin•ni•tus” in Tiny Tim Literary Review, Feb. 20, 2017

“Short curve II” in Breath & Shadow, Jan. 27, 2017

“2 minutes and 30 seconds” in Sea Foam, Jan. 15, 2017

“Ilana and the science experiment” in Crack the Spine, Jan. 5, 2017

Application to NASA“, “I am rotting log of wood“, and “Harriet Tubman was disabled” in Noble/Gas Quarterly, Dec. 23, 2016

“The martian comes to me” in Calamus Journal, Dec. 2, 2016

“Forecast” in Pilgrimage, Dec. 2016

“How to feel beautiful” in The Deaf Poets Society, Oct. 5, 2016

“Wonder Women” in Paper DartsSept. 29, 2016

“As we ran in the backyard” in Wordgathering, Sept. 5, 2016

“Ode to my physical therapist” in Words Dance, Aug. 16, 2016

“Something happened on the day he died” in Snapdragon: A Journal of Art & Healing, June 11, 2016

“Voyager I lands” and “Voyager II lands” in Alien Mouth, May 26, 2016

On that one-way trip to Mars” in River Poets Journal: Signature Poems special edition, May 17, 2016

Body remembers” in The Fem, May 11, 2016

Poems in The Human Touch Journal, May 2016

“On that one-way trip to Mars” poetry collection from Bottlecap Press, May 6, 2016 (out of print)

“Forecast: 4015” in Nebula Rift, April 22, 2016

Aging with the solar system” in Black Heart Magazine, April 17, 2016

Skeleton Sheriff” in Moonsick Magazine, March 1, 2016

&Emma” in Temptation Magazine, Jan. 25, 2016

“Forecast: 2085” and “Magruder Park Underwater” in OMNI Reboot, Jan. 24, 2016

Duo-13-trip” in Dear Robot: An Anthology of Epistolary Science Fiction, edited by Kelly Jacobson, Dec. 2015

Crumb-sized” in BODIES issue of Cactus Heart, Dec. 2015

“Cemetario General” and “Wind chimes” in Cacti Fur, Dec. 2, 2015

A space poem in PALEBLUE: art and sounds from the Milky Way, edited by Lindsay Cahill, Sept.11, 2015

“On that one-way trip to Mars” and “Star searcher” Crab Fat, Aug. 23, 2015

“Find us”, “Exhibit exploration”, “Desert city”, “Glass grit”, “Armpit arsonist”, “Internal combustion”, and “Test SI-27” in The Syzygy Poetry Journal, Aug. 8, 2015

Káktos” in PLANTS issue of jaffatelaqlam: a haven for middle eastern writers & artists, July 18, 2015

On it” in Straight Forward Poetry, June 29, 2015

“Futaba,” “The clocks in their homes,” and “Preserved in Alienation” in Words Fly Away poems for Fukushima, edited by Holly Harwood, Green Wind Press, Sept. 2014

Short Sisters” in Medical Literary Messenger, May 29, 2014
An artistic collaboration between my sister and me, exploring Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia (SED), a bone condition we’ve had since birth. SED causes a variety of issues, including short stature, scoliosis, chronic joint pain, neck instability, collagen deficiency and retinal detachment. We combined poetry and photography to provide a portrait of how SED affects the body and how the condition presents itself differently, even in sisters. The included poems are: “Short curve,” “Growth chart,” “Human growth,” “Cervical instability,” and “Scoliosis.”

Short curve” in Little Patuxent Review, Jan. 25, 2014

Buffalo 3” in Lines+Stars, Dec. 2013

Buffalo 4 The blizzard of ’77” in Stylus, 2013


AWARDS & PANELS

Forecast: 4086” was nominated for Best of the Net: Fiction, 2021

Invited to serve on a panel on “Intersectionality & the Environmental Movement”, Phoenix Consultation, the North American Consultation on Children’s Right to a Healthy Environment, July 17, 2021

Invited to serve as moderator of “Disability’s Influence on Literature: Realism As A Craft Concept”, AWP 2021

Final judge for Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House LitFest Poetry Contest, 2021

Armpit arsonist” was nominated for the 2020 Pushcart Prize

“Crumb-sized” was a finalist in Etchings Press’ 2019 Whirling Prize

Served as Editor for Split This Rock’s Poem of the Week series, 2019

Initial judge for Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House LitFest Poetry Contest, 2017

“On that one-way trip to Mars” was nominated for a 2017 Elgin Award

Poets for Science poetry teach-in leader at the March for Science, 2017

Reader for 10th annual Split This Rock poetry contest, 2016

“The Place Between Us” won the “Stephen Patrick Morrissey Award for Writing Totally Depressing Shit” from Mortified podcast’s Tournament of Awkward Teen Poetry

First Place in the 2013 Jiménez-Porter Literary Prize Poetry Contest for “An invisible middle”
“The poem captures a very intense moment of choice and gradually peels back the occasion’s emotional layers—moving beneath the obvious tension, to show how there are even beloved things that must be abandoned in leaving a place of deep suffering. The poem also finds ways to make the ideas of separation and demarcation tactile by grounding them in human interaction and human memory.”
—Kyle Dargan, poetry judge for Litfest


INTERVIEWS

Interviewed in Darling Lit, December 17, 2023

How heat waves, climate change put people with disabilities at risk, ABC News, July 8, 2021

Access This: Poet Marlena Chertock, Access This Podcast, District of Columbia Public Library, June 15, 2021

Nancy Was Here, Nancy Podcast, WNYC, June 29, 2020
How LGBTQ+ Disabled People Are Celebrating Virtual Pride, Rooted in Rights, June 12, 2020
Stories That Empower: 060 Marlena Chertock, Nov. 5, 2018
“crumb-sized” packs powerful observations, facts, & experiences into 29 poems, Hyype Online, May 2, 2018
This Maryland Alum’s Poetry is an Out-of-body Experience, Big Ten Network, Feb. 27, 2018
An interview with Marlena Chertock, sci-poet extraordinaire, Paper Darts, Dec. 2017
Universal Truths, Terp Magazine, Nov. 7, 2017
Former Student Publishes Second Poetry Book, The Warrior, page 18, Oct. 19, 2017
Objects of Derision: An Interview with Marlena Chertock, Noble/Gas Quarterly, Sept. 15, 2017
Exclusive Interview: Crumb-sized Author, Paul Semel, Sept. 13, 2017
Interviewed in Calamus Journal, Sept. 3, 2017
Marlena Chertock talks about embodied poetry and writing On that one-way trip to Mars, Rogue Agent, Aug., 2017
Interview with Poet and Editor Marlena Chertock, Wordgathering, June, 2017
Wordsmith Interview, Crack the Spine Feb. 3, 2017
This Year I Learned: Marlena Chertock, The Washington Post, 2015