Subhaga Crystal Bacon, Poet, Editor, Teacher

Subhaga Crystal Bacon is a Queer poet living in rural northcentral Washington on unceded Methow land. She is the author of four collections of poetry. Her latest book, Transitory is the recipient of the Isabella Gardner Award for Poetry, from BOA Editions, and was listed in the Publisher’s Weekly’s Top 50 Books of 2023.

She’s also the author of Surrender of Water in Hidden Places, 2023, winner of the Red Flag Poetry Chapbook Prize, Blue Hunger, Methow Press, 2020, and Elegy with a Glass of Whiskey, winner of the A. Poulin New Poetry America Prize, BOA Editions, 2004. 

A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, Subhaga is a teaching artist working in schools and libraries as well as with private students. Her work appears or is forthcoming in a variety of print and online journals including Diode, the Bellevue Literary Review, Indianapolis Review, Rise Up Review, Ghost City Review. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing: Poetry, from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.

Check out Subhaga’s latest videos

Praise for Transitory

Diane Seuss, Heavy Feather Review

Transitory makes The Poetry Question’s List of Best Poetry Collections of 20

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Testimonials

  • Subhaga has been an amazing supporter of my work. She brings her passion for the craft and a jeweler’s eye to deconstructing each line of my poems and understanding what makes them work. She is fearless (and gentle) when explaining what is not working in a poem. My writing would not be where it is without her guidance.

    C.L.L, Conshohocken, PA

  • I began taking a poetry class from Subhaga about 3 years ago and aside from missing one or two sessions, I have been attending every class since. Subhaga is an excellent teacher who provides compelling assignments and does a nice blend of teaching the refinement of a poetry form as well as welcoming her students to break the rules when it serves the poem. Through her class, my confidence as a writer has increased and I am writing more and more!

    Additionally, I have utilized Subhaga’s expertise as an editor, separate from class. I send her batches of completed poems and she helps me to workshop them into better and better work. I am currently 61 poems into a collection of poetry I hope to publish this year. I could not have done this without Subhaga’s support, encouragement, and mastery.

    K. E. Olympia, WA