Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Natalie Solmer

@nataliesolmer.bsky.social

69 followers 72 following 110 posts

Poet, former Florist & landscaper/horticulturist, Associate Professor of English at a CC in Indy, Founder & EIC of The Indianapolis Review. Author of Water Castle https://nataliesolmer.com/

nataliesolmer.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 4h

I wasn't able to edit this after posting, so I created a new post w alt text. Sorry about that.

1 1

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 4h

@kleonardphd.bsky.social this post has the alt text.

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 4h

This post has alttext on the photos.

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 4h

Thanks to @anomalouspress for publishing 4 new poems of mine, all "girl on the spectrum manifestos" i wrote in response to their special call for 'autistic protest poetry' after RFK's ridiculous comments re: autistic people. There is so much cool stuff in this issue! 💜
anmly.org/ap41/natalie...

Girl On the Spectrum Manifesto, no. 1

We hide in plain sight they say, as if something sinister
à la RFK Jr. to Trump, Asperger to Hitler. So many
girls & women unnamed. Boys & men four times
more likely to get a diagnosis. But this is not a disease,
not something only boys who love trains & walk on their toes
can have, though I, a girl/woman, did walk on my toes.
When I read of that symptom in a book, I gasped;

I was just figuring it out & over the age of 40,

remembering my parents took me to the doctor
for toe-walking beyond when a toddler would stop

& though none of my children toe-walked,

each have their uniqueness & one of my sons

as he struggled young, ADHD, I was questioning, reading

like so many mothers, a light started to glow,

go off in my brain & when one magnificent female student

of mine, student who wore a lanyard brightly stating

I am autistic & was her whole self in my classroom

through class, when she wore sunglasses

in the awful florescent light, when she brought me

a houseplant she propagated when we found

we shared a special interest, when she shared

her other interest was keeping roly-polies as pets

in a box in her window well, I was reminded of myself

as a child & the toads in my window well I kept as pets

& she wrote the best poems out of everyone in the class

& when she sat underneath her desk during lecture

without fanfare or apparent shame & which I didn’t think odd,

instead, I felt . . . envy, seeing my secret behavior on display.

Not only as a child, but as an adult, in my apartment

I would sit underneath my desk after coming home

would sit underneath my desk after coming home

from some social thing, when feeling overwhelmed,

I felt the little cave the desk made could hold the world,

keep it from crushing me, the glass shell around me,

& in that remembering, the message on her lanyard

glowed bright & with sunflowers surrounding the words,

I am autistic. That word autistic familiar, thrown around

about my eccentric, engineer father throughout my childhood

when my mother heard about Aspergers, but I thought

because I didn’t like math, didn’t build computers,

it couldn’t be me. Never mind how I didn’t, couldn’t

talk in school until fourth grade, I was labeled gifted

& shy. Never mind my anxiety & depression &

obsessions, how even now, after I participate

in some poetry event, I can’t sleep, dissect it all night

friends say I’d never know. Here I am, writing poems.

Eugenicists take note, my autistic student was the most

talented student in the room & though the label is not

magic, it’s a way of living in this brain,

fuck a cure for who we are,

after forty years of What Is Wrong With Me?,

this was my answer, bright sunflower.

2 3 6

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 9h

Thanks to ANMLY for publishing 4 new poems of mine, all "girl on the spectrum manifestos" i wrote for their 'autistic protest poetry' call after RFK's comments. There is so much cool stuff in this issue! 💜
anmly.org/ap41/natalie... @anmlymag.bsky.social

1 2 8

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 3d

Loved this reading at Proof Midwest Lit festival with Rosalie Moffett Kristine Esser Slentz and Teresa Dzieglewicz ! Mitchell L.H. Douglas and Chantel Massey have done an amazing job once again, along with everyone at Indiana Humanities ! @indianahumanities.bsky.social

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 3d

Had a wonderful experience on the panel about the responsibility of editors regarding censorship at Proof Midwest lit fest with Rosalie Moffett and Mark Neeley!

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 5d

Excited for Indiana Humanities Proof literary festival! So many things I want to check out & and tomorrow I will be on a panel about censorship and editing with Rosalie Moffett, Mark Neeley, and Santiago Valencia! @indianahumanities.bsky.social

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 7d

Today is National Pierogi Day! Thanks to @mirrorindy for boosting our upcoming Pieorgi and Poetry event! I was shocked when I was contacted for an interview! Time to make more pierogi..! 😃@rockwellsays @ania_spyra @karen__kovacik mirrorindy.org/pierogi-tour...

Everyone is welcome at this free pierogi and poetry party

Pierogi Tour, happening Oct. 19, celebrates Polish and Ukrainian culture.

mirrorindy.org

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 7d

A surprise waterlily in October 🍁🍂

Reposted by Natalie Solmer

Hannah C. @hannahcomer4d.bsky.social · 8d

Honored to have my work in this one.

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 8d

Really proud of this issue! Check it out--
theindianapolisreview.com

1 3

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 8d

It's all the emails...we're all way too overwhelmed. I have unsubscribed from most poem a day things also, except SWIMM

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 8d

Really proud of this issue! Check it out--
theindianapolisreview.com

Reposted by Natalie Solmer

Sarah Fawn Montgomery @sfmontgomery.bsky.social · 9d

Many thanks to @nataliesolmer.bsky.social and Indianapolis Review for nominating one of my chronic pain poems for Best of the Net!

Sarah Fawn Montgomery @sfmontgomery.bsky.social · May 9

I’ve got another poem from my aquatic chronic pain project in the latest issue of The Indianapolis Review. Many thanks to @nataliesolmer.bsky.social for giving this poem a home!

theindianapolisreview.com/chronic-pain...

Chronic Pain as Archipelago

I am missingmy selves sisterspread across seas like ancient constellationscalling sailors homecups and arrows swimming over skiesbut in risingtides I cannot find my ownbeginning or endwade through …

theindianapolisreview.com

1 6

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 10d

Nazifa Islam @nafoopal in The Indianapolis Review Summer Issue theindianapolisreview.com/featured-art...

Reposted by Natalie Solmer

Winning Writers @winningwriters.com · Feb 2

"I Have a Vision for My Poems" by Nazifa Islam,
a found poem: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
https://poems.com/poem/i-have-a-vision-for-my-poems
@nafoopal via @Poetry_Daily and @IndianapolisRev

1 1

Reposted by Natalie Solmer

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 10d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

810 17K 38K

Reposted by Natalie Solmer

Derek Mong @derekmong.bsky.social · 10d

You can add my fury, and my phone calls to my elected representatives, to theirs. Using American cities a military "training grounds"? Including the one where I was born and where my heart remains? This is authoritarianism, pure and simple. History is watching.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

Trump Administration Live Updates: Oregon Officials Vent Fury as California National Guard Head to Portland

www.nytimes.com

1 2

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 10d

@emmdubb16.bsky.social
Maya Williams @emmdubb16 in The Indianapolis Review Summer Issue theindianapolisreview.com/three-times-...

1 1 3

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 10d

Kevin A. Risner in The Indianapolis Review Summer Issue theindianapolisreview.com/a-new-year-g...

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 10d

Lee Johnson in The Indianapolis Review Summer Issue theindianapolisreview.com/featured-art...

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 10d

Matthew Zhao in The Indianapolis Review Summer Issue theindianapolisreview.com/mother-carri...

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 11d

Bill Wolak in The Indianapolis Review Summer Issue theindianapolisreview.com/featured-art...

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 11d

These visual poems in The Indianapolis Review Summer Issue by Novella Wu are amazing. Inspired by @newyorktimesgames check out the video here- theindianapolisreview.com/sounds-of-th...

Natalie Solmer @nataliesolmer.bsky.social · 11d

This series of visual poems by Novella Wu inspired by @newyorktimesgames you MUST check out! Watch the video here theindianapolisreview.com/dad