Rachel Barton
Barton is a poet, teacher, writing coach, and editor. For her creative work, she draws from the woods of Indiana, the mountains of West Virginia, and the grandest landscapes of Alaska. Her current life, anchored in the Pacific Northwest’s Willamette Valley, also feeds her muse. She serves as associate editor for Cloudbank Books and was a longtime member of the Calyx Editorial Collective. Her book, This is the Lightness, was published by The Poetry Box 2022. Forthcoming from Main Street Rag, Jacob’s Ladder. To learn more about her and her work, go to rachelbartonwriter.com
What she is looking for:
I enjoy reading many kinds of poetry if the poet invites me into the 
experience of the poem. This means I am looking for a degree of accessibility and also imagery, musicality, concise and artful language, and an authentic voice that might take me on a ramble. I want to follow at least the trace of a narrative or thematic thread. I want to be surprised by the unexpected turn.
This is not a forum for light verse, political rants, or explicit sexual content, and I do not want explanations—I want the experience. What shakes you to the core or shifts you with subtlety into a new awareness? Please send your best work.
