Meet Our Grantee-Partner: Trans Poetics Archive

Mission: Trans Poetics Archive curates occasions for the celebration of trans narratives through collaborative literary and multimedia programs. We create, record and archive trans poetics to diversify and empower representation for present and future trans poets and authors in Maine and beyond.

Trans Poetics Archive was founded by t love smith as an outgrowth of their undergraduate research project at the University of Southern Maine. For the project, smith collaborated with a linguist to translate poems by Anderson Herzer, Brazil’s first published transgender poet. Encountering a lack of academic knowledge and institutional support for trans literature in both undergraduate and graduate settings, smith was inspired to create a space where trans voices could be preserved, celebrated, and amplified.

That vision became Trans Poetics Archive, an organization dedicated to making trans narratives more accessible through collection, archival, and contemporary publication. In 2025, smith published Maine’s first trans poetry anthology and launched Transcendence, a five-day trans poetry festival in Maine. 

Trans Poetics Archive serves adults who identify as transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer, and/or BIPOC, as well as trans youth. These communities are among the most marginalized in the United States and the world. Their stories have been silenced or erased deliberately throughout history. Amid increasing governmental efforts to restrict trans rights to travel, marry, and access life-saving gender-affirming healthcare, artistic expression becomes a vital act of survival and resistance.

Artistic expression, especially poetry, offers a lifeline. It allows people to tell their own stories, to be witnessed, and to shift perspectives at a time when there is a growing need to challenge narratives perpetuated by the media, religious institutions, and the government.

While Trans Poetics Archive focuses on trans narratives, its programs are open invitations for anyone to explore and expand their understanding of gender. Programs are intentionally intergenerational, intergenderational, intercultural, interracial, and interdisciplinary. Trans Poetics Archive offers free and accessible readings, collaborations, and panel discussions in rural and urban communities throughout Maine. Key programs include the following:

• The annual Trans Poetry Anthology Contest, which publishes 40 poems a year
• The Transcendence Poetry Festival, which offers five days of trans poetry programming annually
• The Trans Poetics Archive BIPOC Fellowship, which hosts two annual cohorts that engage the most marginalized and vulnerable in the community, trans BIPOC adults and trans youth
• The Second Rodeo Slam, a monthly open mic and feature with harp accompaniment, followed by a 3-2-1 poetry slam
• Ongoing collaborations and pop-ups

Receiving a general operating support grant from the Poetry Foundation allowed Trans Poetics Archive to hire professional contractors to help develop and facilitate programs. With consistent professional support, the organization has been able to expand its reach, strengthen its infrastructure, and more effectively carry out its mission.

Connect with Trans Poetics Archive:

• Website
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