About
SWWIM (Supporting Women Writers in Miami) sustains and celebrates women poets by connecting creatives across generations and by curating a living archive of contemporary poetry, while solidifying Miami as a nexus for the literary arts.
SWWIM was co-founded in 2016 by Jen Karetnick and Catherine Esposito Prescott, who felt moved to create a platform dedicated to publishing and promoting women writers in Miami and beyond.
At SWWIM, we fulfill our mission by curating the SWWIM Residency at The Betsy–South Beach, by hosting the SWWIM Reading Series in partnership with Books & Books, by publishing SWWIM Every Day—the only online, poem-a-day literary journal devoted exclusively to the work of woman-identifying writers—and by developing and hosting high-quality, accessible poetry events featuring women poets in our Miami community.
Poems first published in SWWIM Every Day have been included in Best American Poetry and the Best American Poetry blog, Best of the Net, Best Spiritual Literature, The Orison Anthology, Poets.org, Poetry Daily, The Slowdown, Substack Reads, The Writer’s Almanac, and Women's Voices for Change, among other awards anthologies, podcasts, and columns, and have garnered Pushcart nominations from contributing editors. SWWIM Every Day was honored by Miami New Times as the “Best Literary Publication” in 2025.
Advisory Board
S. Erin Batiste
Richard Blanco
Jennie Weiss Block
Deborah Plutzik Briggs
P. Scott Cunningham
Vanessa Garcia
Carolina Jayaram
Michelle Kotler
Nicole Tallman
Editors
Catherine Esposito Prescott
Founder + Editor-in-Chief
Catherine Esposito Prescott is the author of four poetry collections, including Superbloom (Gunpowder Press, 2026), Accidental Garden (Gunpowder Press, 2023), winner of the 2022 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize, Maria Sings (dancing girl press, 2017) and The Living Ruin (Finishing Line Press, 2012).
A Best of the Net-nominated poet and the recipient of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Award (2026-28) presented by O, Miami and the The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center, Prescott earned an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from NYU. Her work has appeared widely in print, online literary journals, and anthologies, including Colorado Review, NELLE, Painted Bride Quarterly, Pleiades, Tahoma Literary Review, and elsewhere.
Prescott is co-founder of the literary arts nonprofit organization SWWIM and editor-in-chief of the poem-a-day journal SWWIM Every Day. In addition to her work in poetry, Prescott teaches yoga philosophy, facilitates a spiritual book club (Satya Sangha), co-leads yoga and writing retreats (Spark Retreat), and is an affiliate leader for Helping Parents Heal (HPH), a support group for parents with children in spirit. She lives with her family in Coconut Grove, Florida and spends as much time as possible in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. See http://catherineespositoprescott.com
Mary Block
Senior Editor, Director of Development
Mary Block is a Miami-born, Miami-based poet. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Mudfish, Best New Poets 2020, RHINO, Nimrod International Journal, and Sonora Review, among other publications. Her work can be found online at Rattle, SWWIM Every Day, Aquifer—The Florida Review Online, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of New York University's Creative Writing Program, a 2018 Best of the Net finalist, a 2012 finalist for the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. www.maryblock.net (she/her)
Jen Karetnick
Founder + Managing Editor
Jen Karetnick is the author of 22 books, 13 of which are poetry, and curator of two anthologies. Her most recent poetry collections include Domiciliary (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, October 2026), Organ Language (Lit Fox Books, September 2026), and Inheritance with a High Error Rate (January 2024), winner of the 2022 Cider Press Review Book Award and semi-finalist for the PSV 2025 North American Book Awards.
Her poems have won the Press 53 Poem Summer Challenge, Sweet: Lit Poetry Prize, Tiferet Writing Contest for Poetry, Split Rock Review Chapbook Competition, Hart Crane Memorial Prize, and Anna Davidson Rosenberg Prize, among other honors. She has received support from more than two dozen residency and grant organizations, including AIRIE.Foundation, Miami-Dade Artist Access, Miami-Dade Individual Arts, Soaring Gardens, and Vermont Studio Center.
Jen’s work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Cold Mountain Review's 50th-anniversary issue, Michigan Quarterly Review's 60th-anniversary issue, Missouri Review Poem of the Week, New Ohio Review, and others. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of California, Irvine, and an MFA in fiction from the University of Miami. The mother of two grown-and-flown children, she lives with her husband in a historic house located in a bird sanctuary. See jkaretnick.com or follow on Instagram @JenKaretnick.
Mia Leonin
Associate Editor
Mia Leonin is a Cuban-American poet, writer, and educator. She is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Fable of the Pack-Saddle Child (BkMk Press), awarded second place for the International Latino Book Award. Other titles include Braid, Unraveling the Bed, and Chance Born (Anhinga Press), and a memoir, Havana and Other Missing Fathers (University of Arizona Press). She has been awarded grants and fellowships from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the State of Florida Department of Cultural Affairs, the Barbara Deming Fund, and the University of Miami. She has taught creative writing for over twenty years at the University of Miami. She has given talks, poetry readings, and writing workshops at Miami Dade College, Broward College, Miami Dade County Public Library, The Betsy Hotel, The Wolfsonian Museum, O, Miami, Books & Books, The Miami Book Fair, the Spanish Cultural Center, the University of Miami, Penn State, Indiana University, the University of Missouri, and others. In addition to poetry and creative nonfiction, she has written extensively about Spanish-language theater, dance, theater, and culture in Miami. Publications include Miami Herald, New Times, Dance Magazine, WLRN, and others. (she/her)
Caridad Moro-Gronlier
Senior Editor
Caridad Moro-Gronlier is the recipient of a 2025 Academy of American Poets Fellowship for her work as Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County (2024–2026) and for her intergenerational poetry project, Generation 305.
She is the author of Visionware (Finishing Line Press, 2009), Tortillera (TRP 2021), winner of the Texas Review Press Southern Poetry Breakthrough Prize, and Through the Lens (Texas Review Press, 2026), with As to Your Commentforthcoming from Texas Review Press in 2027. She is also a contributing editor of Grabbed: Poets and Writers Respond to Sexual Assault, Empowerment and Healing (Beacon Press, 2020).
A community-centered poet, Moro-Gronlier’s public humanities work emphasizes access, collaboration, and civic engagement. She has partnered with several organizations including Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Pérez Art Museum Miami, The Deering Estate, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Miami Book Fair, O, Miami, and Books & Books.
She serves as Senior Editor of SWWIM Every Day, an online daily poetry journal for women-identifying poets, and as Poetry Curator-at-Large for The Betsy Writer’s Room. Recent work has been featured by Best American Poetry, the Knight Foundation, NPR, Poets.org, and The Slowdown. She lives in Miami, Florida with her family.
Alexandra Lytton Regalado
Associate Editor
Alexandra Lytton Regalado is a Salvadoran American author, editor, and translator. She is the author of Relinquenda, winner of the National Poetry Series (Beacon Press, 2022); the chapbook Piedra (La Chifurnia, 2022); and the poetry collection, Matria, winner of the St. Lawrence Book Award (Black Lawrence Press, 2017). Alexandra holds fellowships at CantoMundo and Letras Latinas; she is winner of the Coniston Prize, and her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, poets.org, World Literature Today, Narrative, and Gulf Coast, among others. Her translations of contemporary Latin American poetry appear in Poetry International, FENCE, and Tupelo Quarterly and she is translator of Family or Oblivion by Elena Salamanca and Prewar by Tania Pleitez. She is co-founding editor of Kalina, a press that showcases bilingual, Central American-themed books and she is assistant editor at SWWIM Every Day an online daily poetry journal for women-identifying poets. See www.alexandralyttonregalado.com (she/her)
Contributing Editors-at-Large
Clayre Benzadón
Clayre Benzadón (she / they) is a queer (bi /pan) Jewish poet, educator, and activist. Her manuscript, Moon as Salted Lemon, was published by Driftwood Press in 2025 and is a 2026 Lammy Finalist for Bisexual Poetry. Her Miami sonnet recently won second place in the Sonnet! Boom competition She has also been published in places including Penumbra: Literary and Art Journal, Blood + Honey , and SWWIM. Find more about her here: https://www.clayrebenzadon.com
Jen Cheng
Jen Cheng (she/ella/kir) is the fifth West Hollywood City Poet Laureate (2023-2026) and author of Braided Spaces. She is a Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets with her project for high school students “Feng Shui Poetry in the Parks” which integrates eco-education with wellness and poetry. Cheng is a 2026 Macondista, a California Arts Council Fellow, and a Tin House Writers Workshop alumni. She was named one of the Top 50 LGBTQ+ Impact Leaders by LA Magazine (2025). Cheng’s writing is published in Passengers Journal, Colossus:Current, Altadena Poetry Review, and elsewhere.
As a teaching artist, Cheng has worked with diverse students at UCLA Extension, Hammer Museum, Poetry Society of New York, Los Angeles LGBT Center, The Loft Literary Center, and at various libraries and community venues. Beyond poetry and writing, she also works as a ghostwriter and strategy coach for authors and organizations. Online at JenCvoice.com or on social media @JenCvoice.
Emma Trelles
The ninth Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara, Emma was born in Miami to Cuban immigrant parents. She is the author of Tropicalia (University of Notre Dame Press, 2011), winner of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize and a finalist for Foreword/Indies poetry book of the year, as well as the chapbook Little Spells (GOSS183, 2008). She is the recipient of fellowships and honors from CantoMundo, Letras Latinas, and the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. Emma curates the Mission Poetry Series and, in April 2022, became the series editor of the Alta California Chapbook Prize for Latinx poets, which selects two chapbooks for publication in bilingual editions through Gunpowder Press. (she/her)
Readers + Staff
Jill Kitchen
Social Media Manager
Jill Kitchen is a poet and multi-genre writer living in Washington, D.C (though her heart can still be found in Colorado). Her work has been nominated for Best New Poets and Best Small Fictions and appears in Crab Creek Review, The Dodge, Ecotone, Four Way Review, The Iowa Review, The Night Heron Barks, Poet Lore, Split Lip Magazine, Tahoma Literary Review, trampset, Whale Road Review, West Trade Review, and elsewhere. She has a B.A. in Romance languages from Colorado College and has studied creative writing at UCLA, Columbia University, The Poetry Project in New York City, and with Hollowdeck Press in Boulder, CO. She is at work on her first collection. (she/her)
Catherine Abbey Hodges
Reader
Catherine Abbey Hodges is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Empty Me Full
(Gunpowder Press, 2024), and two chapbooks. Her first book, Instead of Sadness, won the
2015 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize; recent poems appear or are forthcoming in Narrative,
Plume, SALT, Plant-Human Quarterly, Tar River Poetry, CALYX, and Birmingham Poetry
Review, among other venues. English Professor Emeritus at Porterville College, Catherine
serves as an advisory editor for Anacapa Review and a staff reader for SWWIM. She writes, teaches privately, and collaborates with musician Rob Hodges on ancestral Yokuts land.
(she/her) www.catherineabbeyhodges.com
Sylvanna Vitali
Reader
Sylvanna Vitali is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, where she served as an editor for The Interlochen Review. Her work has been featured in DREGINALD and on Interlochen Public Radio. Originally from Miami, she is fascinated by language, bilingualism, and work that interrogates these. She resides between Miami and wherever the contents of her little Jansport may take her. (she/her)
Deborah Bacharach
Reader
Deborah Bacharach is the author of Shake & Tremor (Grayson Books, 2021) and After I Stop Lying (Cherry Grove Collections, 2015). Her poems, essays and book reviews have been published in journals nationally and internationally, including Midwest Quarterly, Poetry Ireland Review, Vallum, Cimarron Review, New Letters and Poet Lore. She has received three Pushcart prize nominations and a Pushcart prize honorable mention. Educated at Swarthmore College and the University of Minnesota, Debby lives in Seattle with her family. She is a college writing instructor, editor, and tutor and teaches poetry workshops for children. Find out more about her at DeborahBacharach.com. (she/her)
M.B. McLatchey
Reader
M.B. McLatchey is a poet and writer living, writing, and teaching in Florida. She is a Professor of Humanities at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Poet Laureate of Florida's Volusia County, Arts & Wellness Ambassador for the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and U.S. Ambassador to the HundrED global foundation for innovation in education. She is the author of five books, including the award-winning titles Beginner’s Mind (Regal House Publishing, May 2021) and The Lame God (May Swenson Award, Utah State University Press), and a recipient of the American Poet Prize from the American Poetry Journal, the Annie Finch Prize from the National Poetry Review, a 2020 Pushcart nomination, and Best of the Net nomination. She received her graduate degree in Comparative Literature from Harvard University, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Brown University, an MFA in Poetry from Goddard College, and her B.A. from Williams College. (she/her)
University of Miami Internship Program
As part of our growing partnership with the University of Miami, we offer a for-credit internship opportunity for one students per academic year.
Meet our UM Intern for 2025-2026:
Jay Moyer
Rebecca Brock
Reader
Rebecca Brock’s work appears in The Threepenny Review, CALYX, Radar Poetry, The Shore, Whale Road Review and elsewhere. Her awards include the Lascaux Poetry Prize, the Comstock Review's Muriel Craft Bailey Award, the Atlantis Award, and first place in the Kelsay Book’s Woman’s Poetry Prize, among others. Her books include The Way Land Breaks (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2023) and a chapbook, Each Bearing Out (Kelsay Books 2022). A MacDowell Fellow and a graduate of the Bennington Writing seminars, she has been a flight attendant for most of her adult life and is still surprised by this fact. Find more at www.rebeccabrock.org.
Jude Marr
Reader
Jude Marr (he, him) is a Pushcart-nominated trans poet and editor. His poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies, most recently in Acropolis, Whale Road Review, Cider Press Review, Ghost City, and Masculinity: An Anthology of Modern Voices. Jude’s first chapbook, Breakfast for the Birds (Finishing Line Press, 2017) was followed by a full-length collection, We Know Each Other By Our Wounds (Animal Heart Press, 2020. His next chapbook, Silence Will Not Save Us is slated to see daylight in 2027. A native of Scotland, Jude has lived in three of the UK’s four countries and also spent ten years in the southern United States. Jude now lives in Coimbra, Portugal.
Susan Cohen
Reader
Susan Cohen is the author of Democracy of Fire (2022), A Different Wakeful Animal (2016), and Throat Singing (2012), as well as two chapbooks and a non-fiction book. A former journalist and contributing writer to the Washington Post Magazine, she earned an MFA from Pacific University. Her poetry has appeared in 32 Poems, Alaska Quarterly Review, New Ohio Review, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Southern Review, SWWIM, Verse Daily, and many anthologies. Her honors include the Rita Dove Award, Milton Kessler Poetry Prize, Terrain Annual Poetry Prize, Red Wheelbarrow Prize, and a Pushcart Prize Anthology Special Mention She lives in Berkeley, California. www.susancohen-writer.com (she/her)
Elizabeth Sylvia
Reader
Elizabeth Sylvia is the author of None But Witches: Poems on Shakespeare’s Women, winner of the 2021 3 Mile Harbor Press Book Prize. She has been a semi- or finalist in competitions sponsored by DIAGRAM, 30 West, and Wolfson Press. Elizabeth’s poetry has been published in over 30 journals, including here at SWWIM (before she became a reader, of course). She was educated at Hampshire College and the University of Washington. A native of Martha’s Vineyard, she lives in southern Massachusetts, where she teaches English and coaches debate. Her work can be found at elizabethsylviapoet.net, alongside episodes of her occasional podcast I Want to Talk About This Poem.