Diana Whitney: Girl Trouble: Book Launch & Dance Party

Come celebrate National Poetry Month at Next Stage with an evening of poetry, conversation, and dancing! Join Diana Whitney for the release of her new book, Girl Trouble, which readers are calling “unstoppable” and “deeply subversive.” Girl Trouble is an excavation of female adolescence, a brazen journey through rape culture from the ‘80s to #MeToo. Diana Whitney’s earthy poems spill secrets, make trouble, reckon with stories of desire and harm, and explore the agency and oppression of women and girls. Deeply rooted in the natural world, Girl Trouble grieves the planet’s degradation while celebrating queerness and seeking healing for the next generation. By the end, a myriad of voices builds to a full-throated roar and we feel the power and release in truth-telling. This is a book for survivors and advocates, for mothers and daughters, for anyone moving through trauma with resilience. Diana Whitney is a queer writer and educator who believes fiercely in the power of poetry to connect us to ourselves and to one another. She is the editor of the bestselling anthology You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves, winner of the Claudia Lewis Award, and the author of two poetry collections, Wanting It and Dark Beds. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, The San Francisco Chronicle, and many other publications. An advocate for survivors of sexual violence in her Vermont hometown and beyond, Whitney works as a developmental editor and community organizer for a rural LGBTQ+ nonprofit. Diana will be in conversation with poet Eve Alexandra, whose prize-winning collection None of Us in White was released in 2025. There will be snacks, a cash bar, and books available to purchase from Everyone’s Books.