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We are open for submissions!
We are open for submissions for our Summer 2026 issue of Three Decker!
Submissions are open through April 11th, so please get your submissions in quickly. As with our second issue, we’re accepting poetry and flash fiction for this issue.
Speaking of which, we will have printed issues for sale starting in June. Everyone published in this issue will receive a copy of the journal, as well as members of the WCPA. If you’re not a member, consider becoming one today!
We can’t wait to read your work! Click here to submit!
Interview: Kate Gregoire
Five questions with poet Kate Gregoire, published in our most recent issue.
Kate Gregoire’s “Einhorn” is one of the poems that will appear in the inaugural issue of 3Decker. Here is a little interview with Kate speaking in their capacity as a poet living and working in Worcester County. The inaugural 3Decker issue will be arriving on September 10th!
Tell us about your accepted poem(s). What inspired it/them?
I was working with Beth Sweeney on her brilliant project to collect poems from the community about Worcester, “Poems in and out of Places”, when I drove past the Einhorn Street sign off of Highland St. in Worcester. The poem pretty much wrote itself from there. Worcester can be a rough place to live, especially if you’re moving here alone as a young professional, and yet there is a pulsing vein of hope coursing through the city. You can see it in the art that is nourished here. I wanted to commit to memory this hope and the places I’ve found it, like Luis and Birgit’s White Room, and Bruja’s Poet’s Cauldron.
What is your writing process?
For me, a poem usually starts with a ‘bid’ for my attention. Maybe it’s a word or an image, maybe it’s an experience. In this case, it was seeing the German word for unicorn on a street sign. Suddenly, my eyes were alert for other hints of magic hidden beneath the surface. After chewing around on this bid for a bit, I’ll work in pencil to write it out, to see what shape it wants, where the next stanza will lead me. If I don’t like the first draft, I’ll try a second or a third. My goal is to get everything down about it that’s flowing through my head. I know I can cut it later, but I like to see it on paper first. I usually like some time to pass before typing, sometimes days, sometimes months, or sometimes years. The most serious edit happens here, as I’m deciding which words to transcribe and which to leave behind as part of the process. I’ve been meeting with an incredible group of poet friends once a month since 2021. We met in an online course offered by Driftwood magazine on chapbooks. We workshop two poems a piece together each month, and this is my favorite space to bring a poem. I use our meetings as deadlines to get typing and to put some serious thought into edits.
Where can we find more of your work?
This is my first publication! I am so grateful to the Three Decker team for selecting this poem. I consider Worcester my poetry birthplace, and to be included in this publication dedicated to Worcester County poets is a true honor and hopefully a fitting start!
What makes Worcester feel like home to you? What’s your favorite thing about Worcester County?
What makes Worcester feel like home to me is the people and their love of art. I’m thinking of Birgit Straehle and the Sprinkler Factory, of Jo Truesdell at Tidepool Books, or Nicole DiCello of Bedlam Books. I’m thinking of Irena Kaçi and her fierce dedication to poetry. I’m thinking of Beth Sweeney and her vision with Mapping Worcester in Poetry. I’m thinking of our local radio stations, WICN and WCUW. And I’m thinking of the incredible poets I’ve met through Rain Poetry since 2021. They inspire me, they make me want to be a better poet and person, and they give me hope.
Tell us an unusual fact about who you are.
I have red hair, blue eyes, and am left-handed. I suppose that makes me a bit of a unicorn as well, to bring this around full circle. (But aren’t we all, in some way or other?)
Interview: GTC Dorgan
GTC Dorgan’s “Free Ride On The WRTA” is one of the poems that will appear in the inaugural issue of 3Decker. Here is a little interview with Gennifer speaking in their capacity as a poet living and working in Worcester County. The inaugural 3Decker issue will be arriving very soon!
Tell us about your accepted poem(s). What inspired it/them?
I love public transportation and thought a bus line would be a good topic for a poem. In fact, I think a poem about every WRTA line would make a cool chapbook to read on a bus or train. Unfortunately, that project would take more time than I will probably ever have. Maybe others would like to write poems about “their” lines?
What is your writing process?
I rode the bus with a draft of this poem on my phone and tweaked it a little after each ride. I think it took about two years to write. As you can imagine, my poetic oeuvre is pretty small.
Where can we find more of your work?
Here and there on the internet.
What makes Worcester feel like home to you? What’s your favorite thing about Worcester County?
I come from a small town, and Worcester has everything I ever wanted in a city. Buses, for instance. I mean, it would be great if there were more of them. But still.
Tell us an unusual fact about who you are.
I’m helping to curate a medieval manuscript and early printed book exhibit at UMass Amherst’s DuBois Library this March.
Interview: Maia Campbell
Maia Campbell’s “All That We Love Is Burning” is one of the poems that will appear in the inaugural issue of 3Decker. Here is a little interview with Maia speaking in her capacity as a poet living and working in Worcester County. The inaugural 3Decker issue will be arriving very soon!
1.Tell us about your accepted poem(s). What inspired it/them?
I started writing “All that we love is burning” in the winter of 2025, in the middle of very intense depression. I live with depression and anxiety, but this period was especially difficult with everything that has been occurring in the world. I struggled to see a path for myself in this world, and everything felt on fire. I was writing to express how I have been feeling and to remind myself to hold on to the little things that matter.
2. What is your writing process?
My writing process has often been haphazard. In the past, I would write a poem if I got an idea for one. That worked for quite a while because I get ideas for poems quite often. However, I'm now trying to be more disciplined and at least write down a few lines or an idea every day. I text myself lines when they come to me when I’m out and about.
3. Where can we find more of your work?
I don’t share poems publicly as much as I used to, but I will sometimes share on my Substack, Poetically Expressed Thoughts. My only public Instagram account focuses on Black American History, but I will sometimes share my poetry on it.
4. What makes Worcester feel like home to you? What’s your favorite thing about Worcester County?
I cannot explain why Worcester feels like home; it just is. I love the little quirks around the county. I feel like it is a good city for an introvert like me: a fantastic library system, beautiful museums, lots of local coffee shops, and relatively short drives out into nature.
Interview: Nic Jean Turner
Nicole ‘Nic’ Jean Turner’s “Memory Lane is a Cul de Sac” is one of the poems that will appear in the inaugural issue of 3Decker. Here is a little interview with Nic speaking in their capacity as a poet living and working in Worcester County. The inaugural 3Decker issue will be arriving very soon!
Tell us about your accepted poem(s). What inspired it/them?
I wrote this poem while attending Almonds, Pistachios, Cheese and a Dash of Bitters during the National Association for Poetry Therapy’s 2025 conference in Oregon. The workshop focused on gratitude, resentment, and anger. My thanks to Sherry Reiter, Ph.D., LCSW & Elizabeth Rose, LICSW, MFA, for leading the session.
What is your writing process?
I can’t say I have a specific process beyond seeking out as many opportunities to learn as I can, and surrounding myself with other writers who are also dedicated to their craft. I write nearly every first draft in cursive.
Where can we find more of your work?
What makes Worcester feel like home to you? What’s your favorite thing about Worcester County?
Worcester is where I first fell in love with artists supporting artists. You can always ask a punk, and there’s kindness behind every cigarette cloud outside Ralph’s on a Monday night.
Tell us an unusual fact about who you are.
I’m an ADA SME that builds C# web apps & Drupal/WordPress websites with AAA-level accessibility.
We are open for submissions!
We are open for submissions for our inaugural issue of Three Decker!
Submissions are open through May 15th, so please get your submissions in quickly. For this first issue, we’re accepting poetry only. Future editions will also feature micro fiction and flash fiction. We’re also considering art and photography as well (though the print issues will remain black and white).
Speaking of which, we will have printed issues for sale starting in July. Everyone published in this issue will receive a copy of the journal, as well as members of the WCPA. If you’re not a member, consider becoming one today!
We can’t wait to read your work! Click here to submit!
Welcome to Three Decker
It all begins with an idea.
Welcome to Three Decker, a new literary journal published by the Worcester County Poetry Association (WCPA) for poets and authors in Worcester County, Massachusetts.
Since 1972, the WCPA has published The Worcester Review (TWR), celebrating the rich literary history of Central Massachusetts, enriching it with work from beyond that region, and serving as a conduit to share that richness with a national audience. It’s become a renowned, annual publication that draws in writers and poets and helps highlight local and national talent.
In recent years, Worcester’s literary scene has once again exploded. The Poet’s Cauldron just entered its third year in operation, leading the space for spoken word and slam poetry, combining those with music and visual arts. In just their first year, the Worcester Writers’ Collective has become a home to many local poets and writers from all genres. The Dirty Gerund‘s new documentary captures the fantastic atmosphere they create every week. The Clemente Course for the Humanities
All of that, to say nothing of the myriad of local writing groups, classroom projects, and more around the city and county.
There’s a lot of inspiration to draw from our own history in the WCPA as well. Twenty-five years ago, the WCPA published the bulk of The Issue, our own small literary magazine. An “occasional publication,” as two-time former editor and local poet Paul Szlosek called it. More about the process and his approach from the Winter 2000 issue of The Issue:
It’s been almost two years since Andy Hacanis first conceived of The Issue, this younger sister publication to The Worcester Review, with its primary focus on the poets and poetry of the Worcester County area. When Andy proposed his idea to the board of the Worcester County Poetry Association, it was heartily approved by every board member. Yet since all committees are made up of individuals, I’m sure each member had a separate vision of what The Issue should be. Some wanted it to exclusively publish the members of the W.C.P.A., while others thought it should be a forum open to anyone with the vaguest connection to the county and environs. Some held that the editorial standards should be high and strict as The Review’s, publishing only well crafted, polished work. Others liked the idea of a more informal, even lax journal, allowing everyone a voice no matter how accomplished or not. I confess I backed the latter concept, envisioning a printed version of an open stage poetry venue, sort of a paper coffeehouse.
Those similar conversations came around again. Last Summer, we pitched the idea internally to rekindle The Issue. Following Paul’s example, we led with the “paper coffeehouse” model — a compliment to The Worcester Review that would be less polished by design, publish more frequently (well, at least a little bit), could lend more space for local and emerging poets and writers, and help capture this bold moment in Worcester literary history. We’ve also digitized all those old hard copies of The Issue we could find, and will include them here as part of the archives. We want to bring that history with us, and there’s too much talent in those pages to just keep them on the shelves.
After some more internal work on the logistics, some holidays and life getting in the way, and a short “contest” to choose a name, we’re ready to open the doors. On that note, a special shoutout to local journalist and writer Kayti Burt for finding a name for us in “Three Decker.” We asked our community to help out, and dozens of people submitted over a hundred truly excellent ideas. Kayti’s idea spoke to us as something creative and connected to the city and our neighborhoods. It’s also a connection to the WCPA as well: Mary Pat True, local artist, writer, and wife of WCPA and TWR co-founder Mike True, created the “Worcester Three-Decker” poster in 1989.
The website is clearly pretty bare bones for now as we continue work on a final design and platform for our first issue in April, but we couldn’t wait any longer to get this process started. We’re ready now and genuinely excited to begin reading your submissions from anyone and everyone living, working, or attending school in Worcester County.