poet . critic . consultant
BIO
Trevor Ketner is the author of The Wild Hunt Divinations: A Grimoire (Wesleyan University Press, 2023) and [WHITE] (University of Georgia Press, 2021; Broken Sleep Books (UK) 2022) selected as a winner of the National Poetry Series by Forrest Gander. Their chapbooks include Negative of a Photo of Fire (Seven Kitchens Press, 2019), White Combine: A Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg (The Atlas Review, 2019), and Major Arcana: Minneapolis, winner of the Burnside Review Chapbook Contest judged by Diane Seuss. They have been published in Poetry, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, Poetry Daily, Brooklyn Rail, New England Review, Ninth Letter, Changes, Diagram, Foglifter, and elsewhere. Their essays and reviews can be found in The Kenyon Review, Boston Review, and Lambda Literary. A 2020 Lambda Literary Fellow, they have been a Poets House Emerging Poets Fellow, Emerge-Surface-Be Fellow for The Poetry Project (selected by Wayne Koestenbaum), and a Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Fellow. They hold an MFA from the University of Minnesota and live in Manhattan with their husband.
Recent publications
Poetry
Collections
The Wild Hunt Divinations: A Grimoire (Wesleyan University Press, 2023)
[WHITE] (University of Georgia Press, 2021; Broken Sleep Books (UK), 2022)
Chapbooks
White Combine: A Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg (The Atlas Review, 2019)
Negative of a Photo of Fire (Seven Kitchens Press, 2019)
Major Arcana: Minneapolis (Burnside Review Press, 2018)
Online
Two sonnets from The Wild Hunt Divinations — POETRY
"11 — Justice ." — Poetry Daily
Two sonnets from The Wild Hunt Divinations — Changes Review
Two sonnets from The Wild Hunt Divinations — The Recluse (from The Poetry Project)
"Sonnet 58" — Pigeon Pages
“[Thine Eyes I love, and they, as pitying me]” — The Puritan
Five sonnets from The Wild Hunt Divinations — Sporklet
"Delilah" — Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day
Five sonnets — Brooklyn Rail
Three centos — DIAGRAM
“Nakedness and Fern Cento” — Guesthouse
Four centos— Jet Fuel Review, Cento Folio
“Empty Poem” — Tinderbox Poetry
“Consumption” — BOAAT
“A Spell Called Home #29 & #40” — Memorious
“Exodus” — Lambda Literary Poetry Spotlight
“How We Go on Coveting the Knife” — The Adroit Journal
“Aglow” — The Offing
Print Only
Two sonnets from The Wild Hunt Divinations — Bennington Review
Three sonnets from The Wild Hunt Divinations — Foglifter
“Memory of Summer Heat” — Washington Square Review
“Meditations, with an Image Borrowed from Félix González-Torres”— New England Review
"[Home is a heart.]" — The Stinging Fly (UK)
“Empire” and “Autobiography Not in Drag” — West Branch
“A Spell Called Home #26” — Ninth Letter
“Gunshot Shards of Tiny Steel Stars” — Best New Poets 2015 / Sycamore Review
“Epistle” — Pleiades
“Cipher” — cream city review
“Barren” — The Journal
Prose
Reviews and Criticism
"Mixing Up My Poetry Practice to Beat Writer’s Block"— Poets & Writers
"Freedom From Genre as Freedom to Write"— Poets & Writers
"Revise Like a Painter"— Poets & Writers
"Setting the Table for Your Reader"— Poets & Writers
"A Distant Center" — Library Journal
"Saudade" — Library Journal
"The Undressing" — Library Journal
"One Turn Around the Sun" — Booklist
"On A Symmetry by Ari Banias“ — On the Seawall
"Camp Marmalade by Wayne Koestenbaum” — Lambda Literary
“Half-light by Frank Bidart” — Lambda Literary
A Little History of Whatever (5-part series) — University of Arizona Poetry Center Blog
“‘It is sad is it not’: Mary Ruefle’s My Private Property” — The Bind
“When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen”— Lambda Literary
“Feder by Nathanael” — Lambda Literary
“Schematic: Renee Gladman’s Calamities” — Kenyon Review
“Superior Packets by Susie Timmons” (microreview) — Boston Review
“How to Be Drawn by Terrance Hayes” — The Rumpus
Essays
“Something Small and Heavy” — The Rumpus (June 2015)
Interviews
"Conversations with Contributors: Trevor Ketner" with Halee Kirkwood — The Adroit Journal (February 2019)
“A Conversation About Poetry and Tarot” with Airea D. Matthews and Hoa Nguyen — Catapult (February 2017)
Editorial Consulting
Writing Consultation
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I can consult on many genres including:
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Fiction (novels, short stories, etc.)
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Nonfiction (memoirs, essays, etc.)
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Poetry (individual poems, packets, and collections)
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Books for young readers (middle grade and YA especially though also picture books)
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Developmental edits
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Line edits
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Structural feedback on book-length projects and stand-alone pieces
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Live discussion of work via video conference
Publishing Consultation
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I worked many years in literary publishing for presses and magazines including:
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Graywolf Press
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Catapult
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Slice Magazine
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Poetry Magazine
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As a literary agent, I sold books to Abrams, Algonquin, and Lerner in my first year.
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I can help you with:
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Feedback on a submission
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Position work for agents (Yes, I can even help you draft a query letter!)
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Creative Professional Coaching
As someone who has always worked full-time (and often more than full-time) and published consistently while doing so, I can advise you on ways to balance your creative life and your professional life, build and understand how to maintain (or create!) a creative practice, or how to leverage your creative impulses in your career. I’ve worked in publishing, tech, and education, in indie and corporate environments. And through it all, I’ve continued writing and would love to talk you through solutions for how you can do the same!
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