BIO

Halsey Hyer (they/them) is a disabled queer and trans/non-binary artist and teacher born and raised in Western Pennsylvania. In 2018, they co-founded an adult community poetry reading and writing workshop collective, Goat Farm Poetry Society, alongside fellow Pittsburgh writers. They met weekly in Bloomfield to talk about poetry, workshop poems, write, and be with each other. The collective published two poetry zine anthologies, EDGES and GUTS. All profits from EDGES were donated to the Pittsburgh Prison Book Project (formerly known as Book’Em); all profits from GUTS were donated to Prevention Point Pittsburgh. They've also served as an Associate Editor of Pittsburgh Poetry Journal and as a mentor and member of The Madwomen in the Attic writing workshops.

They graduated from the Community College of Allegheny County with an AA in General Studies (2019). They served as a co-founder and President of the Creative Writing Coalition—the group met weekly to discuss a book selected by the supporting faculty and workshopped poems. The group collaborated on an event with the Art Club to showcase student writing and art to raise money for Literacy Pittsburgh (formerly known as the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Counsel). They received a Most Valuable Player Award (2018) from the college for their contributions in founding and organizing the Creative Writing Coalition.

They earned a dual BA in Psychology and Creative Writing from Carlow University in Pittsburgh, PA, in 2020. There, they worked as a Peer Career Advisor in the Office of Career Development, a Social Media Intern for the English and Theater departments, on the staff for the Red Dog Reading Series and Carlow’s undergraduate journal, The Critical Point, as well as a Research Assistant in Dr. Jen Roth’s memory lab.

At Carlow University, Halsey was awarded an Honorable Mention for the Marilyn P. Donnelly Award in Poetry (2019), The Critical Point Critical Writing Award (2019), an Honorable Mention for The Critical Point Creative Writing Award (2020), Excellence in Creative Writing Award (2020), and the Sister Rita Flaherty Award for Academic Excellence in Psychology (2020).

Formerly an MFA candidate in Creative Writing from Florida International University in Miami, FL, they taught in the Creative Writing and Writing & Rhetoric programs while serving as a poetry and non-fiction reader for Gulf Stream Magazine. In addition to teaching at the post-secondary level, they taught poetry to children and adolescents in Miami-Dade public schools as a Teaching Artist with O, Miami, while working as the Events Coordinator at White Whale Bookstore in Pittsburgh, PA. Halsey has acted as an Editorial Assistant for Seven Kitchens Press, as Assistant Managing Editor of MAYDAY Magazine and New American Press, and as a Nonprofit Management Intern with Sundress Publications, among other editorial and backend support positions within literary and community organizations.

They’re earning their MFA in Creative Writing from Chatham University as the 2022-2024 Margaret L. Whitford Fellow where they also serve as an Assistant Editor for The Fourth River. They’re an editor for and founding member of Death Drive Press, a collective member of The Big Idea Bookstore. Through The Big Idea Bookstore, they now work in collaboration with the Thomas Merton Center and the Pittsburgh Prison Book Project to help people who are incarcerated have access to literature. They serve as an Embedded Tutor in First-year Writing and the English Faculty Lead in the Allegheny Campus Writing Center at the Community College of Allegheny County.

Halsey’s first full-length hybrid collection, Divorce Garter, is forthcoming from Main Street Rag in July/August 2024. Their debut chapbook, [deadname], won the 2022 Rick Campbell Chapbook Award from Anhinga Press. They have a micro-chapbook of micro-poems, Everything Becomes Bananas, from Rinky Dink Press, which earned a Pushcart Prize nomination (2022). Their work has been longlisted for C&R Press’ 2022 Winter Soup Bowl chapbook award and chosen as finalists for the North American Review 2021 James Hearst Poetry Prize and Cutthroat’s 2022 Joy Harjo Poetry Prize.