Matthew Nisinson
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mnisinson.bsky.social
Matthew Nisinson
@mnisinson.bsky.social
(He/him) poet/bureaucrat with poems out in Bullshit Lit, en*gendered lit, Los Angeles Review, Novus Literary, Southern Humanities Review, and others. Currently working on a deep dive project focused on Catullus 85.

On Instagram as lepidum_novum_libellum
My wife surprised me with a copy of @aestallings.bsky.social translation of The Battle between the Frogs and the Mice, a perfect gift. Stallings’ translation flows wonderfully. I love the persona of the scholar A. Nony Mouse. Grant Silverstein’s illustrations make a fantastic addition to the poem.
July 26, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Who else is at NYC Poetry Festival today?
July 13, 2025 at 2:03 PM
My appreciation for Japan’s role in Asia before WW2 has deepened further after reading Yi Sang’s Selected Works, and the wonderful translator’s note by Don Mee Choi comparing her experience with English as colonial language to her father’s with Japanese as colonial language.
June 22, 2025 at 3:07 PM
I found this book about 10 years ago, Travels in Manchuria and Mongolia: a feminist poet from Japan encounters prewar China by Yosano Akiko, translated by Joshua A. Fogel. Been thinking about it a lot recently, and looking for more on Akiko’s role as propagandist, suggestions welcome!
June 22, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Very excited to find my contributor copy of @haydensferryreview.bsky.social in my mailbox this evening! Two of my Catullus 85 translations found a great home in HFR’s Maximalism Folio. I can’t wait for folks to read them!

#ancientbluesky
April 28, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Tired Sunday and I’m reading Paul Celan: Selected Works edited by Pierre Joris. This one, Psalm, struck me quite intensely. Translated by Cid Corman
March 10, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Thanks to Southern Humanities Review for publishing my poem about being and having a parent! And for sharing this excerpt on their twitter account. Hopefully they come to bluesky soon! Check out issue 57.4 with my work and so much more! www.southernhumanitiesreview.com/current-issu...
February 21, 2025 at 12:38 AM
In the below, I write a bit about spending a day at the Met communing with the art. I spent quite a bit of time with this Roman sarcophagus lid in the Greek and Roman wing. Watching other patrons react to it was also very rewarding.
February 8, 2025 at 11:41 PM
I spent the weekend reading How to Not Exclude Artist Mothers (and Other Parents) by Hettie Judah, in between kids’ birthday parties and other activities. Appropriately, I finished it by unicorn night light. This book should be required reading for anyone working in a creative field. Inspiring!
January 26, 2025 at 11:04 PM
My 2024 in books is now up on my blog! Pictured here in no particular order are my top 10. Thoughts about each, plus more on my year in reading, at the link nisinson.wordpress.com/2025/01/05/m...

What were your favorite reads of 2024? Any goals for 2025?
January 5, 2025 at 10:59 PM
My December 2024 roundup is now posted to my blog! A short one for the last month of 2024, but some good stuff! nisinson.wordpress.com/2025/01/04/d...
January 4, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Read “Burning All Through” and four other translations of Catullus 85 in @LAReview losangelesreview.org/5-translations…
January 4, 2025 at 2:18 PM
My last publication of 2024, second this year in print! The kind folks at Southern Humanities Review published my poem, Apparent, about being a parent and having a parent. Just sharing a teaser because the poem isn’t available online, but it’s a great issue and worth picking up!
December 29, 2024 at 11:26 PM
Very grateful to have my poem, Villanelle Origin Story, out in print with Novus Lit.
December 29, 2024 at 6:30 PM
On a bit of a reading spree today, this short, fantastic essay is very much worth your time, especially if you translate or read in translation (you should!), A Manifesto for Ultratranslation by Antena.
December 24, 2024 at 5:21 PM
This masterpiece, Sister Love: The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker, edited by Julie R. Enszer, has been sitting on my ‘to read’ shelf for too long, I finally opened it this morning and promptly inhaled it. The window into their relationship and thought processes is an extreme privilege.
December 24, 2024 at 4:16 PM
Finally posted a new round-up to my blog, this time with October and November. It’s full of writing and music that got me through this strange Fall. What about you?
nisinson.wordpress.com/2024/12/01/o...
December 1, 2024 at 10:53 PM
What are folks reading this weekend? I started Like by @aestallings.bsky.social and am loving it. Here’s her poem Art Monster from the book, my favorite so far.
December 1, 2024 at 4:35 PM
I’m thankful today for family and friends, for warmth in the cold, a roof in the rain, for hope in the present, and the examples of the past. Wishing a good day and a better world to all
November 28, 2024 at 5:44 PM
Tablets: Secrets of the Clay by Dunya Mikhail is a particularly beautiful book inside and out. Mikhail challenged herself to write poems in prelanguage imagery, then translate them into Arabic and English. Lovely.
November 19, 2024 at 8:34 PM
My current read, while the little one plays in the playground with her friend. It’s amazing when they get to the age to entertain each other while we sit and read
November 19, 2024 at 8:30 PM
Here’s a short one of mine, part of my Catullus 85 manuscript, and inspired by studying the front and back of ancient coins. poetrysocietyny.org/matthew-nisi...
November 17, 2024 at 7:20 PM
I sent this one to a lot of people in my life last week. Water and dirt, laughter and tears.
November 17, 2024 at 7:06 PM
Consider people you never knew.
November 17, 2024 at 7:04 PM
This is grief, pure and succinct.
November 17, 2024 at 7:04 PM