publications
it skips a generation
Stanchion, 2023
The poetry collection "it skips a generation" travels back and forth in time, from before the Japanese Internment to the present. It examines the author's relationship with their grandfather (Ojisan) Jack who (along with his mother and sister) was imprisoned at Tule Lake Relocation Center. The poems consider intergenerational trauma & healing, and what survives. “it skips a generation” also reflects on Lubar's own mixed-race and queer (nonbinary, sapphic, femme) identity. They say of "it skips a generation," "I've felt a responsibility to tell this story of the Internment, particularly due to the importance of representation. I grew up without seeing or reading anything about people who looked like me, or had the background that I did. I hope to change this."
sweet euphemism
CLASH! 2023
sweet euphemism enacts a haunting and a reclamation that in calling out to past and present ancestral lineages, both harkening from and pushing against racialized violence, one can be re-born and connected to our dead who enable us to live. These are profoundly thoughtful poems. A stunning achievement.
–Addie Tsai, author of Unwieldy Creatures and Dear Twin
Alison Lubar catches “crack[s] of light” to render immortal truths that might otherwise be forgotten. With the tenderest care and the deftest touch, they navigate intergenerational hurt through their Auntie E’s memories of the internment camps the only way they can: by giving the formless form, by fathoming the unfathomable. Existential fear warps with familial responsibility in this searing, melancholic, and joyful work, where safeguarding assumes new configurations and survival becomes the anthem of the day. This is a collection with teeth—and necessary reading.
—Mandy Moe Pwint Tu, author of Monsoon Daughter and Unsprung
queer feast making the bitter sweet
Bottlecap Press, 2022
"queer feast, Alison Lubar’s second poetry chapbook, is an indulgent look at the pantheon of love through a foodie lens. Through both free verse and formal poetry, this collection considers food as celebration for romance, hallmark of heartbreak, and covenant between friends.
queer feast also asks the questions, What’s the connection between food and love? The bitter and the sweet? No pairing, like no dish, is a monolith: this collection celebrates the complexity of human interaction, desire, and hunger beyond binaries. A collection for the insatiable, queer love will leave you full, but wanting a second (or third) plate. " order here
Philosophers Know Nothing About Love
Debut Chapbook, Thirty West Publishing House, 2022
"Light the torch and explore the depths of Alison Lubar’s debut chapbook, Philosophers Know Nothing About Love. This collection uses Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ as a meta-allegory for love, and in particular, what happens when two lay-philosophers collide mid-life. It’s not as pretentious as it might sound—these poems are grounded in a visit to a museum and more whiskey and figs than anyone could wish for." order here
2024
Work forthcoming with Tokyo Poetry Journal, Poet's Row, Bluebird Anthology, GRR, Punk Monk, F-Word, december, and 27 Club Anthology.
October - METAMOURPHOSIS, full poetry collection coming with fifth wheel press
"YellowThroat" won an Editor's Prize for Philadelphia Stories' National Poetry Contest
"acros[tic]s all binaries" in Great River Review, Issue 70
"Rice for Quapas," in Honey Literary #7
"on Envy" in Cosmic Daffodil's The Seven Deadly Sins Ebook, Issue Five, p. 106
2023
"After Lady Lazarus," Moonstone Arts' Remembering Sylvia Plath Anthology
"Before Perseus," "one in front of the other," and "Dimming Triptych for [redacted]" in Querencia Press Autumn 2023 Anthology
"White Like Sun / Dark Like Marrow" in Sand Hills, Issue XLVII
"Love Song for an Adjacent Sign" with Moss Puppy Magazine & the Minison collaboration for Pop-Up Pride Issue
"MANI-CURE for the newly assembled thanks to Vogue Void," "femme dragon" (listen to an early version on 6/4's reading at P&P from the "watch" tab) and "the gender-affirming closet" plus its illustrations in just femme & dandy, volume 05
"Scientists Want to Shorten the Minute to 59 Seconds" in zrfdbck's art anthology, The Annihilation of Space and Time
"For all of the Sylvias" in the Coachella Review
"trompe l’œil, le cœur" paired with "The King of Horses" at Couplet Poetry, Issue 4
"The New Queer Cosmology, for Us, for Them" from MeowMowPowPow Lit, available as a broadside, and audio, nominated for Best of the Net
"love as Echo-location in a heart chamber" in HOOT, available as a postcard, too!
"I hold my breath" in The Blue Mountain Review and featured in July for Philadelphia's Healing Verse Poetry Line
"cosmic [colpos]copy" in Red Door Magazine Issue 32
"Practical Magic" in Foglifter 8.1
"They called my mother," which was nominated for a Pushcart, and "Sonnet for when they ask, 'What are you?' at a party" in The Quarter(ly) Vol. V - Burn This Fucker Down Part Two
"The river swallows" in Moonstone Arts' 2022 Contributors Anthology
"I blocked you because" in Issue 96 of Rogue Agent, nominated for Best of the Net
"Looking Back" in Soup Can Magazine, Issue #8
"Here is a souvenir of me." republished in the anthology We Apologize for the Inconvenience: Queer and Trans Voices
"Self Portrait in a Type of Mirror" in Issue 4.3 of Chestnut Review
"A New Year" with Roi Fainéant Press in their special COLD Issue
2022
"Hope" in Moonstone Arts' 26th Annual Poetry Ink Anthology
"Ode to the Winter Body" on Poet's Advent Calendar, a Twitter jawn
"Prayer for Rebirth" in Fatal Flaw's Volume 8: Embodiment
"(Re)Generation Triptych" and "Solve for Ex" in Odes to Our Undoing: Writers Reflecting on Crisis Anthology from Saint Mary's College of California
Three poems in One Art: "Domestic Sapphic Diptych," "A Good Mix," and "[Quapa] Imposter Syndrome"
"Inedible" in Kissing Dynamite 47
"To the dog lost in divorce:" with Unstamatic
"Salt for Sugar" in Scorch Zine
"Every lover leaves a glass half-full," in Carousel 48
"Grand Slam" in Cleaver, Issue 39
"MoonShine," "They Won't Come Out," and "Only Bonnema" in White Wall Review
"Solidarity," renamed as "Hakone, 2009" in Five South's The Weekly
"The Apiary Library and Falling Back in Love" in TAB Journal, nominated for The Pushcart Prize
"Pancakes with Ojisan" in great weather for MEDIA's anthology, Arriving at a Shoreline
Five Poems in Isele's Queer Joy Issue: "for all the girls the sun has risen for," "Metamourphosis," "Ghazal for the Rose of Mayfair," "Post-Prandial Love Poem for a New Home," and "Pin(ing)s and Needles"
"After Tinder Date #7" by Maudlin House
Three Poems in Raven Rabbit Ram: "Exhibit in Lavender Gaze," "Sestina on the Illusion of Ethical Dilemmas," and "Weeknight Benediction"
"Take another little piece of my heart now, baby." a Black Stone / White Stone Zine feature with four poems: "Here is a souvenir of me," "Love starved loves like this:," "When our elbows brush in the dark," and "((R)E)Merge"
"My mother is sad today, so" in West Trestle
"Haptic (Un)Accident" in Change Seven
"You can't say 'Oriental'" in Philadelphia Stories, runner up for the Sandy Crimmins Prize in Poetry
Two Poems in Middleground Magazine: "Art Imitates Life" and "Superior(ity) Complex(ion)"
"The Eager Heart is Red: A Haunting" in Full Mood
Two Poems in Stone Fruit Magazine, Issue 05: "Dear Emily" and "Dear Ephemmera"
"(De)Composition" in Muse Magazine, Volume 36
Chapter 13 of Those Who Scream, a novel by 30 writers, through Thirty West Publishing House
"tilda swinton is our icon and she is made of glass" in Veneralia; cover is NSFW
"To sprout a lemon seed," in Revolute .003, finalist for Best of the Net
"After Hours, Ad Astra" in Scrawl Place
Three Poems in Miniskirt Magazine: "Before the Station," "Celestial Lovesong, B-Side," and "Now I write you," nominated for Best of the Net
2021
"Centripetal Force at Thirtyfivethousand Feet" in 25th Anniversary Poetry Ink Anthology, Moonstone Press
"Suburban Blitz" in Protest 2021, Moonstone Press
"Summer at Seventeen" and "A Little Drink" in CELEBRATE845's Zine ...and all was illuminated
"when my girlfriend discovers a dying bird on the fourth of july" in New York Quarterly Issue 67.2
"a prize for the gladiator in the midst of an earthquake," "The Local Crisis: Never Ask the Question," and "After Camus: Life as rebellion against mortality" in Seven CirclePress's CircleShow Volume 23, pp. 20-22
"It Will Be a Garden Again" in Maryland Institute College of Art's Full Bleed Issue 5: Adaptation
"Through the Fence," first published in Passengers Journal Volume 2 Issue 2, then featured in Voicemail Poems as an audio recording
2020
"Cholla Garden Haibun" (also in the May print issue), "This Is [Not Just About Blooming Flowers," and "To another girl called, 'other':" in antonym lit December Issue
"Conservation of Matter" and "The Sneakers You Wear to the Hospital [Daily]" in Apiary 11: The Essentials Issue
"After Hours, Ad Astra" (also in Scrawl Space, 2022), "Now, It Grows in Every Season: Prayer for Apricity," and "Lovesong" in Philadelphia's Giovanni's Room anthology, queerbook
"Before the Good Mourning" in Fearsome Critters' Quaranzine
"Foreshadowing," "The Order of Things You Asked Me to Pack," and "Cleaning Out the Freezer" in Thirty West Publishing House's The Weekly Degree
2019
"University City High School" in Toho Volume 1 Issue 2
"Home Security" in Gravitas Volume 18 Issue 3
"Cosmology 33" in High Shelf Press's Issue VII
"To the Bone" in Rowan University's Glassworks, Issue 27
"This here, is muse:" in Cathexis Northwest Press
2018
"Words Unversed Have No Home," "Carnival of the Animals," and "Something (Hidden and) Blue (Abides)" in Lady Blue Literary Arts Journal November Issue
"There are 807 Mile Between the Ordinary and Sublime" in The Esthetic Apostle
"The Patron Saint of LostBoys" in trampset
"Untitled" in great weather for MEDIA's anthology, Suitecase of Chrysanthemums, pp. 166
2017
"Domestic Villanelle" in SWWIM Every Day