Joshua Zelesnick
Hello. I’m Josh.
I write poetry and essays and have published some of them. My first full length collection of poems was a finalist for two prizes and will be published by Finishing Line Press in January, 2025. I live in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh with my wife and two kids in a co-housing community called Borland Garden. Recently, I was able to wade right into a waterfall and even stand behind it--one of my most favorite things to do in the world. The air feels sacred, hollowed, like spells should be cast there.
Scroll down to browse my site.
Book
The release date for Insert Coin is January 2025, but there will be a presale before that. The link for the presale will be added when it becomes available.
Cover Design by nonpolygon, aka, Ian Finch
Chapbook
Click below to read Josh's chapbook, Cherub Poems.
To buy a copy, send him an email - $12
Published by Bonfire Books
Book Design by Sten Carlson
Selected Publications
5 Poems in Cartridge Lit, March 2021
5 Poems in Texas Review, Fall 2022
3 Poems in Yes Poetry, May 2021
2 Poems in Diagram, Winter 2020
"23 Hours in Solitary" in Rabid Oak, April 2022
5 Poems in Pretty Owl Poetry, Summer 2019
6 Poems in Epigraph Magazine, September 2020
"[a cloud that follows us]" in Matter, August 2021
6 Poems in Word For/Word, Summer 2019
"All These Children Leaving the Arcade" in Jubilat, January 2015
"[the contestant enters but what she thinks]" in 8 Poems, May 2020
"Racism in the Bloodstream" in CounterPunch, April 2014
"The New Civil Rights Movement" in CounterPunch, January 2015
2 Poems in Everything in Aspic, Winter 2020
Schedule of Readings
Fri, Jan. 19, 2024 - Bonfire Reading Series, Pittsburgh, PA. Benefit to raise money for Gaza civilians
Thurs, April 11, 2024 - Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY.
Bio & Contact
Joshua Zelesnick writes poetry and essays and fiddles around on the guitar or ukelele most evenings, likely and preferably with his two kids either playing nearby or hanging on him. Insert Coin, his first full length collection of poems--a ten-year project that scrutinizes drone warfare, the colonization of virtual and physical space by banks, the moons of Saturn, and video games--was a finalist for the Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize at Conduit Books and Ephemera and the Trio Award at Trio House Press and will be published by Finishing Line Press in January 2025. Bonfire Books published his chapbook Cherub Poems in 2019. His poetry and essays can be found in Jubilat, Texas Review, Drunken Boat/Meridian Anthology, Matter, Word For/Word, Juked, Labor Notes, Counter Punch, Yes Poetry, DIAGRAM, and other journals. He has taught at Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh and is now a Librarian and creative writing teacher at a public school in Pittsburgh, where he lives with his partner and kids in a garden co-housing community. With friends, he helps host an occasional living-room music and reading series.
