When Asked to Define Departure
I think of little Leah who stumbles offthe camp bus at pick-up, beelines to the buzzypsychic's table set up on the terrifying sidewalkof New York City. Our first reaction, Let's leavethis stranger alone . .…
Bellingham Review Contributor
Amanda Dettmann
Amanda Dettmann is a queer poet, performer, and arts educator who is the author of Untranslatable Honeyed Bruises. She earned her MFA in Poetry from New York University where she taught undergraduates and has received support from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshops and the Juniper Summer Writing Institute. Dettmann was one of two finalists for the 2022 Action, Spectacle contest judged by Mary Jo Bang, as well as the winner of the 2023 Peseroff Prize in Poetry selected by Jake Skeets. Her poems have been nominated for 2025 Best of the Net and a Pushcart Prize, appearing or forthcoming in publications such as The Adroit Journal, Fence, Verse Daily, The Oakland Review, Portland Review, Yalobusha Review, and Stanford’s poetry journal Mantis, among others.