Reuben Gelley Newman
About
Reuben Gelley Newman (he/they) is the author of Dear Dear (Trio House Press, 2026), winner of the 2025 Louise Bogan Award, judged by Randall Mann. They also wrote a chapbook, Feedback Harmonies (Seven Kitchens Press, 2024), in homage to the musician Arthur Russell. He is a writer, musician, editor, reviewer and librarian trainee based in New York City. Their poems have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Salamander, Fairy Tale Review, Northwest Review, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. You can find them online @joustingsnail (Instagram, Twitter); on Bluesky they post at @joustingsnail.bsky.social. He's also trying to fiddle more with his Substack: "To fling out broad its name: Poetry, Sound, Libraries."
Additional Information
Reuben is a 2021 graduate of Swarthmore College, where he was awarded multiple honors for his writing and academic excellence. Previous literary experience includes and internship at Copper Canyon Press and a role as a content editor at the Adroit Journal. As a singer, they sang in the Manhattan-based chamber chorus Amor Artis, were a soloist with the Swarthmore College Chorus, and performed at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts with Critical Mass, a college early music group he led. They also gave a joint senior recital at Swarthmore with soprano and composer Hannah Cai Sobel, a frequent collaborator who has set their poems to music. He's a fan of green tea, em dashes, and fretted instruments—from guitar to viola da gamba—and works at the New York Public Library.