Come Hear! 2026 MARATHON POETRY READING
Come Hear! is a queer reading series founded in 2001 by Nathaniel Siegel and Regie Cabico for The Rainbow Book Fair at The LGBT Center which has supported the series since 2008 and is one of two major queer literary book festivals in the United States. Over 30 authors will share original poetry and prose with six to eight writers reading their work every hour. All participants are slated to be published in Tribes Magazine Online 2026.. Come Hear! was founded to bring intergenerational queer authors together while A Gathering of the Tribes has been producing this all-day reading since 2024. This year Nathaniel and Regie are joined by co-curators Drew Pisarra and Irene Villaseñor.
Come Hear! 2026 BIOS
Andy Barrow is a New York–based writer whose debut novel, Peter in Progress, draws inspiration from his own later-in-life gay awakening. When he’s not writing, Andy is likely perfecting his backhand, chasing his next cold brew, or making up for lost time on the dance floor.
Anna Limontas-Salisbury is a writer, poet and one time freelance journalist. Her work appears on Santa Fe Writers Project, La Libreta and Sweet Action Poets; anthologies include Panoply: An Inaugural MultiCreative Wisdom Anthology edited by Maria Luisa Arroyo Cruzado and I Wanna Be Loved By You: Poems on Marilyn Monroe by Susana H. Case and Margo Taft Stever.
Benjamin S. Grossberg’s collections of poetry include My Husband Would (University of Tampa Press, 2020), winner of the Connecticut Book Award, and Sweet Core Orchard (University of Tampa Press, 2009), winner of a Lambda Literary Award. His novel, The Spring before Obergefell (University of Nebraska Press, 2024), was selected by Percival Everett for the AWP’s James Alan McPherson Prize and also received a Lambda Literary Award. Ben is Director of Creative Writing at the University of Hartford.
Bryan Borland is founding publisher of Sibling Rivalry Press, founding Editor of Assaracus: A Journal of Gay and Queer Poetry, and author of multiple books of poems, including, most recently, Brotherful, a finalist for the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry.
chloe feffer (they/he/she) is a writer and educator. Their first published piece of short fiction was recognized with a nomination for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers from The B’K Magazine, and their work has been supported by Tin House’s summer workshop and Fine Arts Work Center. chloe’s day-job is directing Lambda Literary’s Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices.
CQ QUINTANA [pronouns: any/all] is a queer nonbinary writer with Cuban blood and New Orleans roots based on Canarsee and Munsee Lenape land in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. Most recently, CQ received a Literary Arts Fellowship from the Lucas Artists Program at Montalvo Arts Center. Check out Prosebuds, a monthly Substack featuring CQ's work and showcasing the multi-genre writing community.
Dan Schapiro is a disabled writer and printmaker whose work draws from the teachings of Disability Justice, pop music, and birds. He is the author of HOLEPLAY (Nueoi, 2020), a book of poems and images about illness. He is currently working on a book of critical essays about virality and risk.
Don Yorty is the author of two poetry collections, Spring Sonnets and Fucking and Other Poems, and a novel, What Night Forgets. He blogs at donyorty.com, an archive of current art, his own writing, and the work of other poets.
Drew Pisarra is the author of two sonnet collections, Periodic Boyfriends and Infinity Standing Up; two short story collections, You're Pretty Gay and Publick Spanking; and two radio plays, The Strange Case of Nick M. and Price in Purgatory. He also wrote a versified homage to his favorite filmmaker: Fassbinder: His Movies, My Poems.
Dylan Richmond is a choreographer, dancer, and poet from the Connecticut shoreline and the company manager for New York Live Arts and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. He has presented work and/or performed at TOTAH, WestFest, NYU, The Tank, Bowdoin College, the Bates Dance Festival, Yale, UCLA, and Connecticut College. As a poet, Dylan is a 2024 Pushcart Prize nominee and is notably published in From Root to Seed, Lily Poetry Review, No, Dear, On Paper, and The Foundationalist.
Ethan Richmond is a poet and dancer currently working as the Development Assistant for AILEY. They were the recipient of the Celebrate! Maya Angelou Poetry Fellowship from the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow and are published in singer-songwriter Kevin Atwater’s Achilles Literary Collection. Ethan has danced and/or read poetry at NYU Tisch, TOTAH, Triskelion Arts, Martha Graham Studio Theater, The Tank, Bennington College, the Grand Ole Opry, and Williams College, where they graduated cum laude as the Class Poet.
Guillermo Filice Castro is the author of the chapbooks I Am Not Alone (Thirty West Publishing House, Fall 2026), Mixtape for a War (Seven Kitchens Press, 2018) and Agua, Fuego (Finishing Line Press, 2015). His work has appeared in Best American Poetry 2023 (edited by Elaine Equi) and many journals, and has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of Net prizes. Castro lives in New Jersey with his husband.
Irene Villaseñor is a poet and multidisciplinary artist whose work explores Indigeneity, injustice, care, and queer belonging. Her writing appears in Queer Nature: An Ecoqueer Poetry Anthology, Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color, Nat. Brut, Yellow Medicine Review, North Dakota Quarterly, and Cream City Review, among others. Her manuscript, Get Lost Colonizer: Erasures from the Future, was a runner-up for the Center for Book Arts’ Annual Chapbook Contest.
Jai Mohan (he/him and neopronouns) is a multi-hyphenate artist working at the intersection of spirituality, art, and advocacy.
Jamilah Ali is a queer Progressive Muslim poet who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her partner and 2 cats. She believes poetry is our best non-violent tool to counter this pitiful fiasco. She is standing against the war in Iran, and the extinction of trans.
Joey De Jesus is a poet, Lecturer at Columbia University, and former candidate for New York State Assembly residing in Ridgewood, New York.
Joseph M. Pierce is a Cherokee Nation citizen; Professor and Founding Director of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Stony Brook University. Author of Speculative Relations: Indigenous Worlding and Repair (Duke UP, 2025).
Justice LaBrave is a Queer New York native with Afro-Boricua Roots. Singer, songwriter, poet and producer, Justice has self-produced 3 studio EPS and performs around the Tristate as a speaker and performer. Most recently Justice is the winner of "Unhinged Idol," QTS (Queer Talent Search) of NYC, and "VOICE OF NYC."
k j tiao is an artist, educator, and shapeshifter currently based in brooklyn. their work has appeared in Washington Square Review, Puerto del Sol, Soap Ear, TPCreview, and elsewhere. Their debut collection, transpacific, won the 2025 Noemi Book Prize, and is forthcoming.
Kat Sotelo is a first-generation Filipinx American performance artist, choreographer, and set designer based in Brooklyn. Her work blends movement, satire, and constructed environments, drawing from her experience in exotic dance to examine the body as a site of commerce and fantasy. With training in sculpture and cinema, she merges maximalist aesthetics in fabrication, film, and live performance.
Linnea Scott is an actor, drag performer, and writer based in Brooklyn. They are in the practice of making art that heals. They are also in the practice of making art that is stupidly funny and builds our stamina for joy.
Lonely Christopher is author of several books of fiction and poetry and is the managing director of Segue Foundation. He is currently writing a queer study of Herman Melville.
Malcolm Tariq is a poet, playwright, and social impact strategist from Savannah, Georgia. He is the author of Heed the Hollow (Graywolf, 2019). He lives in Brooklyn, New York and serves as director of the Prison and Justice Writing Program at PEN America.
Mariah Barber is a queer black nonbinary revolutionary writer weaving tapestries with her words.
Nathaniel A. Siegel created the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual + poetry reading Come Hear! with poet Regie Cabico in order to present L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ poets to L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ persons in L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ friendly places. His chapbook, Tony, was published by Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs.
Pamela Booker is a recipient of a 2024 NJ State Council on the Arts Fellow Award in Prose. An interdisciplinary writer, educator, eco-activist and some-time podcaster, her work spans literary fiction, poetry, essays, and performance-theater arts. She teaches writing, culture, and media-focused courses at Montclair State University.
Regie Cabico is the author of A Rabbit In Search of A Rolex (Day Eight, 2023) and the Interim Executive Director of A Gathering of The Tribes.
S. A. Borland is editor and designer of Sibling Rivalry Press and author of Tertulia. A Catalyze Fellow, Desert Rat Resident, Open Mouth Fellow, and recipient of the Richard Stanley Cooper Literary Award, his work across books and design has been recognized by the American Library Association and the Library of Congress. He lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, with his husband, Bryan Borland.
Sarah M. Sala is the author of Devil’s Lake (Tolsun Books, 2020). She teaches writing at NYU, and despite the clear instructions on seed packets, she prefers chaos seeding her garden.
Scott Hightower has published five books of poetry in the U.S. and two bi-lingual collections in Madrid. A sixth stateside book, Lord of the Marsh, is slated for this Spring. He lives in Manhattan and teaches at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU.
Shea Vassar is a Cherokee writer and comedian based in Oklahoma. She dabbles in various creative mediums which utilize existentialism to look at Indigenous diaspora, connection to land, generational trauma, and the irony of being alive.
Sylvia Jones is the author of Television Fathers (Meekling Press, 2024) and Dope Calisthenics, forthcoming from Relegation Books this Fall. Jones serves as an editor for Black Lawrence Press and is a senior reader for Ploughshares. She lives and writes in Baltimore, Maryland.
Tova Greene (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based producer and poet-person. As the Chief Programs Officer of The Poetry Society of New York, they create immersive poetry wonderlands—such as The New York City Poetry Festival & Poetry Camp—that prioritize collaboration and artistic experimentation. Their events have garnered acclaim from outlets including The New York Times and Observer. Their debut collection, lilac on the damned's breath (Bottlecap Press, 2022), grapples with the cyclical nature of grief.
Tray Tsui is a Brooklyn-based queer artist, filmmaker, and writer whose work investigates the links and ruptures between mass culture, collective memory, and personal narrative. Utilizing autoethnography, performance, found footage appropriation, and narrative film production, Tray works to redress the problematic legacy of cinema as a medium that erases, distorts, and totalizes the experience of the "other."