Jacob Schepers

Check it out! So pleased to bring this new ballast issue to the surface.

Poster for lunch lecture "What is a language model?" from Prof. David Chiang at the University of Notre Dame with event details. Headshot of speaker against background of blue-gray starry/computer chip image.

Event notice: a lunch talk on February 5, 2025. Prof. David Chiang from the Department of Computer Science will give a talk titled “What Is a Language Model?”

The talk is open to the public, and a Zoom link will also be provided.

Promotional poster for the Franco Institute's Day | Merton Symposium on Friday, April 10, 2026. Headshots of speakers Rainn Wilson, Jenny Odell, Vauhini Vara, and Shankar Vedantam against blue branded background. Headline text reads "Four thinkers. One question. How should we hold attention?" with details for the event.

🚨 Registration now open for the 2026 Day | Merton Symposium

📍 Downes Ballroom, 7th floor Corbett Family Hall, University of Notre Dame

🗓️ April 10, 2026 | 3:30-6:30 PM
(A poster session for "attention" theme research begins an hour prior)

Details & registration here: franco.nd.edu/events/dorot...

🌸🌸🌸
Here’s Rebecca Valley and “January in the Japanese Garden” for ballast 3.4’s contributor features

Read the full poem here

www.ballastjournal.com/rebecca-valley

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#RebeccaValley

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

The Franco Institute invites the community to join us March 3 at Stockroom East for an Evening with N. K. Jemisin.

This is a free but ticketed event with limited seating availability. Visit our event page for our Eventbrite link.

franco.nd.edu/events/2026/...

Here’s Misha Tentser and “Sacred Heart” for ballast 3.4’s contributor features

Read the full poem here

www.ballastjournal.com/misha-tentser

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#MishaTentser

year-end review

because it’s vital to share how art and creativity not only happen in spite of difficulties and dumpster fires but as a refusal to accept the dumpster fires

Grateful to the editors, collaborators, contributors, journal neighbors, press mates, & readers:

Community > gloating

Here’s Hannah Azar Strauss and “Warner’s Lolly” for ballast 3.4’s contributor features

Read the full poem here

www.ballastjournal.com/hannah-azar-...

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#HannahAzarStrauss

Here’s Kelly R. Samuels and “Re: Talking of Wallpaper” for ballast 3.4’s contributor features w/ @kellyrsamuels.bsky.social

Read the full poem here

www.ballastjournal.com/kelly-r-samu...

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#KellyRSamuels

Judging your own poetry is like holding your hand to your own forehead to check for a fever.

Here’s · R L · powell and “Polaroids I didn’t take only to leave in Basque” for ballast 3.4’s contributor features

Read the full poem here

www.ballastjournal.com/rl-powell

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#RLPowell

Here’s Meg Pokrass and “The Stranger Likes Soup” for ballast 3.4’s contributor features @megpokrass.bsky.social

Read the full poem here

www.ballastjournal.com/meg-pokrass

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#MegPokrass

Here’s Caroline Picker for ballast 3.4’s contributor features

Content Warning: grief, loss of child

Read the full poem here

www.ballastjournal.com/caroline-pic...

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#CarolinePicker

Thank you, Eric!

✨Contributor Features from ballast 3.4✨

Here’s Matthew Murrey with “L” @mytwords.bsky.social

Read the full poem here!

www.ballastjournal.com/matthew-murr...

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#MatthewMurrey

A rolling stone gathers no moss? Well, good thing I’ve let this project have a few years of growth to accumulate ALL THE MOSS.

My second full-length, *Ugly Ground Swell Moss*, is heading out into the world sometime soon with Carbonation Press.

✨Contributor Features from ballast 3.4✨

Here’s Pete Miller with “Ethanol”

Read the full poem here:

www.ballastjournal.com/pete-miller

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#PeteMiller

Digital broadside of a poem by Jory Mickelson in ballast issue 3.4. Black text on light pink background with black curly line on right side. Text of poem reads “So maybe a hotel room's really a pastoral. It's all there right on the surface. So, pastoral with comforter & pillow. Pastoral with telephone on the nightstand. Pastoral with stranger's pubic hair on the gleaming toilet seat.”

✨Contributor Features from ballast 3.4✨

Here’s Jory Mickelson @poetryphone.bsky.social with “[Sometimes a hotel room]”

Read the full poem here!

www.ballastjournal.com/jory-mickels...

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#JoryMickelson

✨Contributor Features from ballast 3.4✨

Here’s Andrew Maxwell with “nunc dimittis”

Read the full poem here!

www.ballastjournal.com/andrew-maxwell

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#AndrewMaxwell

✨Contributor Features from ballast 3.4✨

Here’s Jason Labbe with “Everybody”

Read the full poem here!

www.ballastjournal.com/jason-labbe

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#JasonLabbe

To Be, Continued by Vernon Frazer out now! We here at C22 are proud to bring to you To Be, Continued by Vernon Frazer, our latest full length release. To Be, Continued is Vernon Frazer’s latest foray into the liminal space between ima…

To Be, Continued by Vernon Frazer out now from C22 Press @c22press.bsky.social! Vernon Frazer’s latest foray into the liminal space between image and language, playing between text and pure image to create a poetics all his own. Read for free. Print coming!

c22press.wordpress.com/2025/12/10/t...

Dec. 13 December 13, 2025 2:00-3:45 pst/4:00-5:45 cst/5:00-6:45 est Register for Zoom link here Featuring: Jared Beloff Barlow Adams Dan Murphy upfromsumdirt Gregory Crosby J-T Kelly Hosted by: David...

I'm reading tomorrow!
5-6:45 PM ET Saturday Dec 13th

A fantastic lineup that includes @monostich.bsky.social @readinstead.bsky.social and @upfromsumdirt.bsky.social @barlowadams.bsky.social and @dmurphy.bsky.social

beardedbardsofbluesky.weebly.com/dec-13.html

Yellow graphic featuring poet David Koehn with a poem excerpt from “Horse in Field Under Power Lines Quatern.” The poem reads: “I’ve been told everything is in transition today / Storm cloud diminishing, optimisms, your death arrives today / Rutabagas, parsnips, deviled eggs, a gun appeared in the mirror today.” Below the text are illustrations of two deviled eggs. The bottom right corner shows “ballast 3.4” and “ballastjournal.com.”

✨Contributor Features from ballast 3.4✨

Here’s David Koehn with “Horse in Field Under Power Lines Quatern”

Read (or listen to David read) the full poem here!

www.ballastjournal.com/david-koehn

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#DavidKoehn

My money’s on bathos.

Text from Ted Jean’s poem “Ecclesiastes” from ballast issue 3.4. Black text in green background with silhouette of a frog in bottom left corner. Poem’s text reads as follows: you become aware of frog song on every hand the pond you know and those you don’t, the ditches the chorus seems to celebrate

✨Contributor Features from ballast 3.4✨

Here’s Ted Jean with “Ecclesiastes”

www.ballastjournal.com/ted-jean

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#TedJean

Excerpt from Jenna Jaco’s poem “That Couple.” Black text on red background with black image of two chairs and a table in bottom left corner.

✨Contributor Features from ballast 3.4✨ @jennajaco.bsky.social

Here’s Jenna Jaco with “That Couple”

www.ballastjournal.com/jenna-jaco

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#JennaJaco

I was overdue to update and refresh my website. Added a bunch of pics and links to poems and projects and all the things. Check it out, yeah?

jacobschepers.com

✨Contributor Features from ballast 3.4✨

Here’s Vivian Ia with “[camaraderie with the inevitable]” which is also one of our Pushcart nominees this awards season!

www.ballastjournal.com/vivian-ia

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#VivianIa

✨Contributor Features from ballast 3.4✨

Here’s G Timothy Gordon with “Daliesque”

www.ballastjournal.com/g-timothy-go...

#contributorfeature
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#GTimothyGordon

Hey #ballast is a nonprofit journal, and if you support what we’re doing and would like to consider financially supporting us with a #givingtuesday donation, we hope you do. Every little bit helps us keep the lights on and the web hosting happy. Our donate link is at ballastjournal.com/donate.