· R L · powell words · literacy & figments
genuinely curious & tolerantly mad
· R L · powell [he/him :: they/them] is a writer of poetry & prose, although he’s proven himself to be poorly committed to any genre in particular. They're the founding Editor-in-Chief of the poetry journal, APROSEXIA LIT, an educator, champion of all things peculiar & kind, and a deeply cracked intellectual. In spite of being interrupted along the way to achieving a couple of degrees, they hold a Specialist B.A. (Hons.) in English, with a minor in Paradigms & Archetypes, & an MA is in English Languages & Literatures. Before parting ways with their doctoral program, ABD, his research centered on the epistemologies of reading, the philosophy of science & literature, American modernisms, and the phenomenology of boredom.
Right now he’s trying his darnedest to finish an MFA in poetry, but whoever seems to be helming the universe has yet to declare themself for his side. Anyone willing to put in a good word is invited to do so.
They have close to a decade’s worth of experience teaching literature at the post-secondary level; worked in and across an improbable range of industries, along with a nearly as improbable number of jobs. They’ve received support from the Bennington Writing Seminars, and studied under Randall Mann & Michael Dumanis. To date, they don’t feel particularly sad about leaving the PhD program—but anything is possible. He remains genuinely proud of the decision to write full time.
· R L · has an unusual talent for thinking & teaching in & around critical theory; maintains a passion for pedagogy, and has been recognized for uniquely engaging approach to the critique of art. He's drawn to imaginative examinations of literal & figurative space, work derived from dreams, and irreverent dives into recondite subjects. They knows of awful lot of words, and have a tendency to use them when it would likely be better not to. Sometimes, they’re funny. But above all, he thinks you're doing a magnificent job of being yourself.
the imperative to be heard
Over the course of his life, · R L · has written on an improbable number of subjects, across medium & dramatic changes in publishing technologies, and in service to diverse and varied purposes. A focus on the Arts has been consistent throughout, but it has taken coming to terms with the realities of illness, neurodiversity, disability, and other sundry barriers to make a return to poetry & fiction genuinely possible. As vital as poetry and storytelling have always been for them, understanding the level of support, and the concessions required were all parts necessary for · R L · to pursue a life of letters directly. This is also led them to found APROSEXIA LIT, and recently expand its mission to providing quality opportunities for the work of divergent, challenged, and challenging minds to find representation, into a full, nonprofit publication venture, with an open-ended goal to publish the more offbeat, abstract expressions born of living with mental illness and disability. Being intimately familiar with the cost of being without options to gain opportunity when barriers are difficult to define or find others to relate to, besides continuing to press to find a home for his own work, it is equally important that they use what they’ve learned to help advance the disadvantaged talent of others.
Recent publications :: poetry
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“Never name the cat / after your morning’s emperors”; “One’s song hardly wed committing violence / aside fears of an open kiss, in 1999.”
Mande Literary, 5. Apr: 2026. Online. [forthcoming]
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“the gauge left ot battery a phone call / requiered to abandon work”
Scavengers Lit Mag, 3. Apr: 2026. digital/print.
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"An Odd Couplet :: Re-set the table to co-opt the entire conversation"; “An Odd Couplet :: About That Boy and Table”; “call to our lips to make pale atoms of our nights.”
The engine(idling, 8: collage. 2026. digital/print.
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“Give me contraints; I will give you a rhino”; “What's to stop ringing up the day when goose & god are hopeless”; “Times when Deepak Chopra's wisdom was free.”
Blood+Honey. Mar: 2026. online.
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“Detections that follow misread lines in a marriage.”
junq magazine, 6. Feb: 2026. print.
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“The take-home at the new box-office / now barely covers the cost of admission.”
fwp 2025: an anthology of queer writing. fifth wheel press. Nov: 2025. print.
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“Polariods I didn't take / only to leave in Basque.”
from, Ingenious Lies About the Museum. ballast, 3.4. Oct: 2025. online.
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“Exhibition without the Museum: iii. Without warning, a pitch of desire.”
from, Ingenious Lies About the Museum. The Inflectionist Review, 21. Oct: 2025. online.
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“upon Return from the ATM.”
junq magazine, 3. Nov: 2024. print.
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“always and still / worlds above.”
Impossible Archetype. 16. Aug: 2024. digital.
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“My Suburbia Was a Woodland.”
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“Frost.”
Eunoia Review. Dec: 2023. Online.
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"And the Sea Brags of Its Shells."
Haven Spec, 11. Nov, 2023. digital/print.
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“Are Bright Things to Pray For.”
Impossible Archetype, 14. Aug: 2023. digital.
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“Five Characters”; “Hurt”
The Rumen. Jul: 2023. online.
the extant
First and foremost, the extant is a broad canvas. What is often described in the circles of science fiction & fantasy as a “secondary world,” the extant is the colloquial name for a distant realm named the Agnyett. It is the the aggregate culmination of worldbuilding over a lifetime, too much education with too few degrees to show for it, and a wealth of underserved stories taking up space in · R L · s head.
The extant is large enough to provide a home all their personal takes on familiar tropes, with potential for the occasional twist on genre stories at home in soft sci-fi, speculative fiction, and fantasy. From their perspective, the extant is running behind on where it could be as fiction set down on the page. Between between poetry & nurturing APROSEXIA on a larger scale, getting a better grip on the extant, and seeing more of it in print, has become a large part of · R L · s writing practice.
