Chapbook Collective

Our group came together through an admiration of each other’s poetry, and we now support each other in the pursuit of larger projects such as chapbooks, full collections and novels, as well as all aspects of our writerly lives and careers. We provide each other with accountability, constructive critique, encouragement, and inspiration, and an environment where each of us can thrive and grow. 

Our group is diverse, and we  have between us experience with many different kinds of writing communities, from the academic cohort to paid workshops, mentorships, and drop in meetings. We are available, jointly and individually, to give readings, lead poetry and other writing workshops or open mics, or share our experience in creating this type of  non-hierachical, non-institutional, fee free collaborative cohort.

  • Raymond L. Acevedo

    Raymond L. Acevedo is a Californian poet living with his wife and daughter in the Bay Area. He works as a Speech-Language Pathologist in post acute settings and is an active member of the Chapbook Chamber Collective.

    His poems reflect upon memory, loss, work, family, friendship, aging, mortality, and parenthood seeking to express humor, connection and redemption. His poetry is anthologized in Redwood Writers 2024 Poetry, The Marbled Sigh, and Fault Zone Anthology.

  • Allison Burris

    Allison Burris cohosts a weekly virtual Poetry Connected drop-in meeting on Meetup and is an engaged member and leader in several poetry groups. She writes a weekly Substack on creativity and tries to get as many people reading poetry as possible, especially people who don’t think of themselves as poets or poetry lovers.

    Her work sits largely outside the MFA tradition, pulling from her love of speculative fiction, material culture, and historical research stemming from her background in library and information science. Her poems are quirky, whimsical, intertwining joy and wonder with grief and yearning. Her poetry has been widely published in nearly 50 literary journals including Passionfruit, Heartline Spec, and Hoxie Gorge Review.

  • Kathie-Louise Clarke

    Kathie-Louise Clarke is a British-raised writer, artist and Counseling Psychology MA student living in California. She is inspired to create pieces that interrogate and illuminate the human condition, with a focus on love, loss and the beauty of the natural world.

    She teaches printmaking and is an active member of the Chapbook Chamber Collective. Her poetry is in  journals including Seaside Gothic, The Brussels Review, The Orchards Poetry Journal and The Orange & Bee. 

  • Shymala Dason

    Shymala Dason is a Malaysian-American editor, teacher, writer, and poet. Her consultancy helps other writers hone their craft. She brings to this more than six decades of life experiences as diverse as working at NASA and surviving cancer.

    Her debut poetry collection, Carrying the Ocean, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. She founded the Chapbook Chamber Collective and is a regular cohost of the Monday Night Poetry Lounge. Her work has been published in The Massachusetts Review, The Literary Review, The Margins, RedHeaded Stepchild, and Grey Coven.

  • Robyn Morgan

    Robyn Morgan’s poetry draws inspiration from the permeability of identity and the decades she spent in the American South. Her first collection of poetry, Meditations on the Possibility of Romantic Love in the South between Eras of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation, was published by Match Factory Editions, and she serves as an editor there.

    Her work is in journals such as Third Coast and Packingtown Review. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and works as a web marketer.