Publications
Cortney Lamar Charleston's complete publication history is detailed below, organized reverse chronologically with more recent credits appearing first. This summarizes only first-time publications and excludes reprints. Click on underlined titles for links to work online.
2025
“It’s Important I Remember That Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow—”
Poet Lore (TBD)
2024
“It’s Important I Remember—,” “It’s Important I Remember That America Exists by a Kind of Grace—” and “It’s Important I Remember That Whiteness Is Only an Orientation—”
Poetry Northwest (TBD)
“It’s Important I Remember That the Obamas' First Date Was Seeing Do the Right Thing—”
Bennington Review (TBD)
“It’s Important I Remember That Halle Berry Is the Only Black Woman to Win an Academy Award for Best Actress―”
Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts (TBD)
“It’s Important I Remember That Sojourner Truth Hadn’t Suffered Enough—” and “It's Important I Remember That the Enemy of My Enemy Is Someone I Don't Know Very Well—”
New Letters (Oct 2024)
In These Times (Sep 2024)
The Massachusetts Review (Sep 2024)
“It’s Important I Remember That George Zimmerman Isn’t White―”, “It’s Important I Remember That Kanye West Doesn’t Care About Black People―” and “It’s Important I Remember That People Who Search for Me on Google Also Search for Terrance Hayes―”
Waxwing (Sep 2024) - Issue XXXI, Fall 2024
Action, SPectacle (Aug 2024) - Summer 2024, Vol. III
“It’s Important I Remember That Being Alone and Being Lonely Aren’t the Same Thing―” and “It’s Important I Remember That Even Beyoncé Got Cheated On―”
Shō Poetry Journal (Aug 2024) - No. 5
“It’s Important I Remember That the Enemy Is Always Within―”
Michigan Quarterly REview (Jul 2024) - Issue 63.3/Summer 2024
“It’s Important I Remember That Survival Is a Matter of Luck—”
The Florida Review (Jul 2024) - Spring 2024
“It's Important I Remember That Journalism Is the First Draft of History—”
The Common: A Modern Sense of Place (Apr 2024) - Issue 27
Poetry London (Mar 2024) - Spring 2024
“It's Important I Remember That I'm Not Built for This Fight—,” “It’s Important I Remember That Lyndon B. Johnson Said, ‘We Have Lost the South for a Generation’—,” “It's Important I Remember That One Black Justice Replaced Another—” and “It’s Important I Remember That South Carolina Seceded First—”
Mississippi Review (Mar 2024) - Issue 51.3
“It's Important I Remember That Fascism Didn’t Come to America, It Was Already Here—”
The Common: A Modern Sense of Place (Feb 2024) - February 2024 Online Poetry Feature
“It’s Important I Remember That We’re Not Bearing Witness, We’re Watching—”
The Adroit Journal (Jan 2024) - Issue 48
“It’s Important I Remember That the Majority of Americans Agree the Country Is on the Wrong Track—”
Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature & Fine Arts (Jan 2024) - Issue 36.1
2023
“It's Important I Remember That Things Are Getting Back to Normal Around Here—”
Guernica: A Magazine of Global Arts & Politics (Nov 2023)
“It's Important I Remember That Abraham Lincoln Always Measured Before He Cut—” and “It’s Important I Remember That Frederick Douglass Learned How to Read—”
New England Review (Sep 2023) - Vol. 44.3
“It's Important I Remember That Fannie Lou Hamer Kept the Phone off the Hook—”
The American Poetry Review (Sep 2023) - Vol. 52, No. 5
Chicago Reader (Aug 2023)
“It’s Important I Remember That There Is No Universally Recognized Definition—”
The Poetry Review (Jun 2023) - Volume 113, Issue 2
“It’s Important I Remember That the Feeling of an Eye on Me Burns—” and “It’s Important I Remember That the Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself—”
Southern Indiana Review (May 2023)
“So Be It (Amen)”
New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust (APr 2023)
“It’s Important I Remember That a Lack of Imagination Kills—”
Underbelly (Mar 2023)
“It’s Important I Remember That Nina Simone Wrote ‘Mississippi Goddam’ in Less Than One Hour—”
The Atlantic (Feb 2023)
Hoxie Gorge Review (Feb 2023)
“Brown Estate, 2018 Tempranillo”
Academy of American Poets: Poem-A-Day (Feb 2023)
2022
“It’s Important I Remember That I Believed I Could Fly—”
SLICE (April 2022) – Issue #27, Levity
2021
“It’s Important I Remember That Darkness and Blackness Aren’t Perfect Synonyms—” and “It’s Important I Remember That Enslaved People Married Here—”
The Cincinnati Review (Dec 2021) - Issue 18.2
“It’s Important I Remember That Even Donald Trump Didn’t Believe He’d Win the Election—”
Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review (Dec 2021) - Issue #53
“It’s Important I Remember That It Costs Extra to Add Cheese on a Whopper—”
jubilat (Sep 2021) - Issue #39
“It’s Important I Remember That I Can Never Wash My Hands Enough—” and “It’s Important I Remember That There Are Several Ways to Kill Houseplants—”
Salamander (Jun 2021) - Issue #52
“It’s Important I Remember That All I Have to Do Is Stay Black and Die—”, “It’s Important I Remember That Jay-Z Arrived the Day Fred Hampton Died—” and “It’s Important I Remember That Toni Morrison Dubbed Bill Clinton the First Black President—”
TriQuarterly (Jun 2021) - Issue #160
Puerto del Sol (Jun 2021) - Black Voices Series
“It’s Important I Remember That the Moral Arc of the Universe Bends—”
Academy of American Poets: Poem-A-Day (May 2021)
“It’s Important I Remember That There’s a Difference Between a Human Being and a Person—”
The Nation (Apr 2021)
“I Like My Women Like I Like My Cars,” and “Waves”
Prelude (Jan 2021) – Issue #5
2020
“It’s Important I Remember That A Tank Has Never Stopped the Lyric—”
Glass: A Journal of Poetry (Nov 2020)
“It’s Important I Remember That Politics Is a Contact Sport—”
Beloit Poetry Journal (Oct 2020) - Vol. 70, No.2
“In Defense of Jawn While Offending Elitist Sensibilities” and “Over Everything—”
Another Chicago Magazine (May 2020)
Southeast Review (Mar 2020) – Vol. 38.1
The Kenyon Review (Mar 2020) - Volume XLII, No. 2
2019
“White History Month”
North American Review (Dec 2019) - Vol. 304, No. 4
“It’s Important I Remember That History Is All a Big Misunderstanding—” and “It’s Important I Remember That Thomas Jefferson Was a Rapist—”
AGNI (Nov 2019) - Issue #90
Waxwing (Oct 2019) – Issue XIX
“Excuse Me but Do You Know Who the Hell I Am?” and “Total Eclipse Means the Light Has Left Us”
Shrew, A Literary Zine (Jul 2019) – Issue #9
“It’s Important I Remember That They Don’t Have the Tools to Critique Me—”
POETRY (Jun 2019)
“Between Lafayette and Panola I Have a Fever Dream” and “Poem Where I Bide for the Birds and the Overcoming”
Rappahannock Review (May 2019) - Issue 6.2
Cordite Poetry Review (May 2019)
“Genesis 10:11” and “Self-Portrait as a Recipe for Disaster”
Ambit Magazine (Apr 2019) - No. 236
“Animal Phat Farm” and “Jim Opus”
African American Review (Mar 2019) - Vol. 52, No. 1
Poetry Society of America (Mar 2019) – Poetry & Democracy
Los Angeles Review of Books: Quarterly Journal No. 21 – Epistolary (Mar 2019)
Granta (Feb 2019)
“Louis Vuitton Timberlands” and “The Love Song of Percy Sledgehammer”
Prelude (Feb 2019)
“The Unauthorized Autobiography of Jung Thug”
POETRY (Feb 2019)
“Elegy for Killmonger with My Own Pain Entering Frame”
Michigan Quarterly Review (Jan 2019) – Winter 2019
2018
“Concerning Citizenship”
Ninth Letter (Dec 2018) – Fall/Winter 2018-19
“A Character Solemnly Torn” and “Newton's Third Law / Negritude's First Law”
Crazyhorse (Dec 2018) – Issue #94, Fall 2018
“Poem Where I Contend the Arc of History Bends Toward Itself”
Rabbit: a journal of nonfiction poetry (Nov 2018) – Issue 26, Belonging
“Laws Without Morals Are Useless”
Drunk in a Midnight Choir (Nov 2018) – Issue #4
The Nation (Nov 2018) – Dec. 3rd-10th
Granta (Nov 2018) – Issue #145, Ghosts
“The Poets Are All Pretty Pleased with Themselves Tonight”
Split Lip Magazine (Oct 2018)
The Missouri Review (Oct 2018) – Poem of the Week
“A Brief History of the Suburbs,” “Giving Dap” and “I Ain't Mean to Scare You, Lil' Nigga”
The Rupture (Aug 2018)
BOAAT (Jul 2018) – July/August 2018
Lunch Ticket (Jun 2018) – Issue 13 (Summer/Fall 2018)
“Baldwin Riff” and “Note Pinned to the Wall for the Fly Who Frequents It”
Hairstreak Butterfly Review (Jun 2018) – Issue #1
The Sun (Jun 2018) - Love and Justice
“Psalm for P.” and “Your Face Has Always Been Peppered with Moles”
Image: Art - Faith - Mystery (May 2018)
“A Brief History of Chicago”
Columbia Poetry Review (May 2018) – Spring 2018
“Dissplacement” and “Etymology of Hoochie Mama”
AGNI (May 2018) – Issue #87
“Bush vs. Gore,” “Bush vs. Kerry,” “Obama vs. McCain,” “Obama vs. Romney” and “Trump vs. Clinton”
The American Poetry Review (May 2018) – May/June 2018
“Gangsters, Disciples”
RHINO (Apr 2018) – Spring 2018
Palette Poetry (Apr 2018)
“Southwest Airlines Flight #2003”
Voicemail Poems (Apr 2018)
“The Ballad of Addy Walker: An African-American Girl Story”
Washington Square Review (Mar 2018) – Spring 2018
“Watching Paint Dry Is Underrated”
The Shallow Ends: A Journal of Poetry (Mar 2018)
Philadelphia Stories (Mar 2018) – Spring 2018, Sandy Crimmins Editors' Choice Selection
“No Weapon Formed Against Me Shall Prosper”
The Missouri Review (Mar 2018) – Poem of the Week
“Bibliophobia: Fear of Books” and “Marginalization”
Passages North (Mar 2018) – Issue #39
POETRY (Mar 2018)
“Nappy Nappy Joy Joy” and “Reaganomics”
Figure 1 (Feb 2018)
“Facts Only”
Midwestern Gothic (Feb 2018) – Winter 2018
The Rumpus (Feb 2018)
“Self-Portrait as a Constant Point of Contention”
The Adroit Journal (Jan 2018) – Issue #24
“I'm Rooting for Everybody Black”
Academy of American Poets: Poem-a-Day (Jan 2018)
2017
“Grand Theft Auto III (2001),” “Jesus Piece,” “Ode to FAFSA” and “Ode to the Paycheck”
Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking, & Light Industrial Safety (Dec 2017) – Issue #35/36
“Doppelgangbanger,” “(Sub)Urban Dictionary” and “Thugonomics”
ecotone: Reimagining Place (Dec 2017) – Issue #24, Craft
“Godspeed”
wildness (Dec 2017) – Issue #11
“The National Anthem Don't Even Slap” and “Therefore Ain't No Invite”
Sixth Finch (Nov 2017) – Fall 2017
“Elegy for a False Sense of Security” and "When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Martyr"
POETRY (Nov 2017)
“Fascism”
Foundry (Sep 2017) – Issue #6
“Catfish Heaven Variation,” “Logos” and “Testimony”
Anomaly! (July 2017) – No. 25, Sacred Americas Folio
“Grand Street” and “Sonic & Knuckles (1994)”
32 Poems (July 2017) – Vol. 15, No.1: Spring/Summer 2017
“Lesson for Cortney” and “Still Life with Black Boy’s Face Overlaying Project Buildings”
The Common: A Modern Sense of Place (May 2017) – Issue #13
“Stop Trippin'/I'm Trippin' Off the Power”
The Volta (Apr 2017)
Jet Fuel Review (Apr 2017) – Spring '17
Passages North (Mar 2017)
“Devotion ('I Am on the Battlefield for My Lord')”
POETRY (Mar 2017)
“Postmortem: 11/9/16,” “The Star of the Violence” and “W_it_ness”
DIALOGIST (Feb 2017) – Vol. IV, Issue 1
“…Everyday Something Has Tried to Kill Me and Has Failed,” “I Think I Know One When I See One” and “The Melancholia”
Waxwing (Feb 2017) – Issue XI
“I Said, 'Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death'”
Hand in Hand: Poets Respond to Race (Feb 2017)
“Lincoln Cemetery”
Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks (Feb 2017)
“Love Poem (feat. Drake),” “The Attitude Era” and “The Year the South Siders Got Over”
Barrelhouse (Feb 2017) - Issue 16
“The Details Get a Little Fuzzy, I Apologize”
HEArt Online: Human Equity through Art (Feb 2017)
“In Case I Still” and “Telepathologies”
THRUSH Poetry Journal (Jan 2017)
2016
“Jumpman: A Ghazal with Pivots”
The Iowa Review (Dec 2016) – Vol. 46, Issue 3
“Family and Consumer Sciences” and “Triggernometry”
Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts (Dec 2016) – Vol. 29.1
The Offing (Dec 2016)
“Gynophobia: Fear of Women”
epiphany, A Literary Magazine (Dec 2016) - Fall/Winter 2016
“At Gunpoint”
Apogee (Dec 2016) – Issue #8
“Moving Day (New Kids in the Neighborhood)”
The Common: A Modern Sense of Place (Sep 2016)
“Pool Party” and “Po-Po Postlude”
Huizache: The Magazine of Latino Literature (Sep 2016) – Issue #6
“Katrina”
Southern Humanities Review (Aug 2016) – Vol. 49.4
Nashville Review (Aug 2016) – Vol. 20
“How Do You Forgive?”
Beecher’s Magazine (Jul 2016) – Issue #6
“Hip-Hop Introspective #1”
Spillway, A Poetry Magazine (Jul 2016) – Issue #24 (Seasons)
“A Brief History of Red”
Sugar House Review (Jul 2016) – Issue #13
TriQuarterly (Jul 2016) – Issue #150 (Summer/Fall 2016)
THEthe Poetry (Jul 2016) – Featured Poet, Infoxicated Corner Series
“Charleston”
River Styx (Jun 2016) – Issue #96, The River Styx Guide to Money and Power
"Still Life with Young Black Woman's Face Etched into a School Desk"
New England Review (Jun 2016) – Vol. 37.2
"Homophobia: Fear of Sameness"
Fourteen Hills: The San Francisco State University Review (May 2016) – Vol. 22.2
Apogee (May 2016) – Perigee (Online)
“Working Definition of a Prefix: Trans-”
RipRap Journal (May 2016) – Vol. 38
“How Did They Justify the Shooting?” and “Ode to Black Love”
Puerto del Sol (Apr 2016) – Issue #51.2
“Aviophobia: Fear of Flying” and “Hydrophobia: Fear of Water”
Pleiades: Literature in Context (Apr 2016) – Vol. 36.2
“I'm Pretty Sure It's Not Called a 'Race Card' Anymore”
Drunk in a Midnight Choir (Apr 2016) – National Poetry Month Series
The Missouri Review (Apr 2016) – Poem of the Week
“Apologia with Pregnancy Test and a Weeping Jesus,” “Ashy” and “I Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dust”
Juked (Apr 2016) – Issue #13
The Rumpus (Mar 2016) – The Conversation: Interview & Poem Series
“The Barbershop”
Hayden’s Ferry Review (Mar 2016) – Issue #57 (Borderlands)
“Ghazal of the Code” and “In Theory, We Are All Human”
Fugue (Mar 2016) – Issue #49
"Chillary Clinton Said 'We Have to Bring Them to Heal'"
Rattle (Feb 2016) – Poets Respond
“Do Not Walk Through the Neighborhood of My Body,” “Eavesdropping on White Noise,” “Jump Out Yourself,” “A Letter of Complaint from Uniontown, Ohio,” “Someday I'll Love America” and “Spade”
Atticus Review: six degrees left of literature (Jan 2016) – Featured Poet
2015
One Throne Magazine (Dec 2015) – Issue #8, Winter 2015
“Ghazal on the Cusp of Rage”
J Journal: New Writing on Justice (Dec 2015) – Fall 2015
“BLK-on-BLK” and “The Hood”
The Journal (Dec 2015) – Vol. 39.4
“D.W.B.,” “Facing the Music,” “Meditation on Black Death Ending with an X-Ray” and “The Melanin”
Connotation Press: An Online Artifact (Nov 2015) – Issue II, Vol. VII
“Meditation on Wings and Meeting Gabriel in a Philadelphia Prison”
THRUSH Poetry Journal (Nov 2015)
“Praise song for the black body ending in the throat of a swallow”
pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture (Nov 2015) – Issue #13
“Meditation on the Casual Use of Hands”
Matter: A Journal of Political Poetry and Commentary (Oct 2015)
Up the Staircase Quarterly (Oct 2015) – Issue #31
“You're Only as Healthy as You Feel”
IDK Magazine (Oct 2015) – Issue #2
“Serenade with a Happening of Thunder”
The Boiler: A Journal of New Literature (Sep 2015) – Fall 2015
Drunk in a Midnight Choir (Sep 2015)
Juked (Sep 2015)
“Natasha Romanoff Deactivates Her OkCupid Profile”
Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Vol. 1: Welcome to the New Hallelujah (Sep 2015)
“Still Life with Torso of Cornrowed Neo-Soul Sanger”
Crab Orchard Review (Aug 2015) – Vol. 20, No. 2
“How Do You Raise a Black Child?”
Beloit Poetry Journal (Aug 2015) – Summer 2015
“Making a Fist”
Toe Good Poetry (Jul 2015) – Vol. 5
Tinderbox Poetry Journal (Jun 2015) – Vol. 2, Issue 1
“Six Shots on Ferguson, Missouri”
FOLIO: a literary journal (Apr 2015) – Issue #30, Conflict
Drunk in a Midnight Choir (Apr 2015)
Rattle (Apr 2015) – Poets Respond
“Meditation on Sunday Traditions After the Video Leaks” and “Still Life with the Color Orange”
Chiron Review (Apr 2015) – Issue #99, Spring 2015
The Blueshift Journal (Apr 2015) – Issue #2
Rogue Agent (Apr 2015) – Issue #1
“Grandpa's War: An Anthem” and “How Did Your Mother Die?”
Kweli Journal (Mar 2015)
“Spell Check Questions the Validity of Black Life” and “Water Cooler Talk Ending with the Colors of an American Flag”
Winter Tangerine Review (Feb 2015) – Spotlight Series: Hand’s Up, Don’t Shoot
“Self-Portrait as a Tea Bag” and “Strays”
The Normal School: A Literary Magazine (Feb 2015)
Eleven Eleven: Journal of Literature & Art (Jan 2015) – Issue #18
“Tortures, in Subtitles”
Blue Monday Review (Jan 2015) – Issue #4
2014
Rattle (Dec 2014) – Issue #46
“Exhibitionism with a Drop of Blood” and “Tupac Shakur's Last Words”
CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art & Action (Dec 2014) – Issue #14
“Break the Internet,” “Hip-Hop Introspective #2” and “Still Life with the Dropout Bear Sitting in the Stands”
FreezeRay Poetry (Dec 2014) – Vol. 1, Issue 5
Spry Literary Journal (Dec 2014) – Issue 5
“Ballad of the Broken,” “Elegy via Nintendo 64,” “Knives,” “Still Life with Woman and Balloons in Noir” and “Upon the Home Breaking in Half”
Fractal Literary Magazine (Dec 2014) – Vol. 2, Issue 1
“Still Life with Light-Skinned Rapper Wearing Newsboy Cap,” “Still Life with Skateboarding Rapper Orbited by Nerd Paraphernalia” and “Windy City”
Storyscape Literary Journal (Nov 2014) – Issue #13
“Blackness as a Compound of If Statements”
Blunderbuss Magazine (Nov 2014)
“Miley Cyrus Presides Over the Funeral for The Twerk”
Rattle (Oct 2014) – Poets Respond
“Artfully Dodging the Subliminal and Obvious,” “Where Brooklyn At?” and “White, As Told by Black”
HEArt Online: Human Equity through Art (Oct 2014)
“Dead Leaves” and “The Migratory Patterns of Lovebirds”
Burningword Literary Journal (Oct 2014) – Vol. 72
Contraposition Magazine (Oct 2014)
Mobius: The Journal of Social Change (Sep 2014) – Vol. 25.3
Chicago Literati (Aug 2014)
“American Terrorism in Seven Acts”
Radius: from the Center to the Edge (Aug 2014)
“Still Life with Kendrick Lamar’s Mama’s Van Driving in Reverse”
Word Riot (Jul 2014)
“Katana’s Song,” “Self-Portrait as a Japanese Cartoon” and “Tasseography”
Control Literary Magazine (Jul 2014) – Issue #2
“Self-Portrait as a Chicken Dinner”
Lunch Ticket (Jun 2014) – Summer/Fall 2014
“Regarding the Conversation Between Black Body and Sound”
Bird's Thumb (Jun 2014) – Vol. 1, Issue #2
“Black Boy's Ode to the Suburbs” and “Brooklyn Dodgers”
Linden Avenue Literary Journal (Jun 2014)
Gravel: A Literary Journal (May 2014)
“Fences” and “I Have Been a Stranger in a Strange Land”
Specter: A Curated Literary Website (May 2014) – Issue #24
“An Old Soul Angles Inside Itself”
The Missing Slate: Art & Literary Journal (Apr 2014) – Weekend Poem
“A Can of Murray's Pomade, 1990 – Present”
Kinfolks: a journal of black expression (Mar 2014) – Vol. 1, Issue 1