Mickie Kennedy (he/him) is a gay poet who resides in Baltimore County, Maryland with his family and a shy cat that lives under his son’s bed. He created and runs eReleases, a small business specializing in press release distribution.

His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Threepenny Review, POETRY, The Southern Review, Colorado Review, Gulf Coast, Foglifter, Nimrod, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. A Pushcart Prize nominee and finalist for the 2023 Pablo Neruda Prize, he earned an MFA from George Mason University. His first book of poetry, Worth Burning, will be published by Black Lawrence Press in February 2026. His chapbook, Glandscapes, winner of the 2024 Button Poetry Chapbook Prize, will be available in September 2025.

Mickie’s poems dance and squirm, too slippery to pin down. They orbit a distinctly Southern family life, distorted by grief and abuse. They also examine the collision of sex and death, since the speaker’s sexuality was formed when AIDS was an unstoppable force. The work is balanced by an abiding sense of humor, an ironic queerness that punches space into the narrowest closets.