NOTICE: In 2022, I'm going to be taking my artwork in a new direction, employing it to explore some fresh subjects in an illustration series. I WILL still be making Letters From The Sea Tower for the entirety of 2022, but I plan to take an indefinite break from making new letters at the end of this year. The Past Letters Archive will remain open.

PUBLICATIONS & AWARDS



Bryana grew up in a home where thousands of books lined the walls. Her childhood was filled with imaginative adventures inspired by rich literature and powerful stories, and although she has since developed a great passion for modern and contemporary poetry, she still derives great joy from studying the classics and sharing their ongoing relevance in fresh ways. Her favorite authors include George Eliot, W.S. Merwin, George MacDonald, Anne Brontë, James Baldwin, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Charles Dickens, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Naomi Shihab Nye, e.e. cummings, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Brownings.


Bryana holds a B.A. in English from Hardin-Simmons University and has been writing and publishing since she was in high school. Her writing has appeared in the publications below.

 



Poetry Publications


forthcoming
"On the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 a Lot of People are Saying Never Forget" (Poetry Northwest)
"Reindeer Cyclones" (Stirring: A Literary Collection)
"Pulling Teeth" (Stirring: A Literary Collection)
"Roofless" (Stirring: A Literary Collection)
"Summer of the Oystercatchers" (Iron Horse Literary Review, Winner of the 2022 NaPoMo Competition)
"Two Stories" (Midwest Quarterly)


2021

"Jackals" (Delmarva Review, Volume 14)

"Nightingale" (Black Fox Literary Magazine, Issue 21)
"Baby Girls" (Black Fox Literary Magazine, Issue 21)

"10 Things I Learned In The '10s" (Pensive Journal, Issue 3) 

"Sure There's a God" (SAND Journal, Issue 23)

"Collage of Airports" (DIALOGIST, 01 October 2021)

"The Table" (The Windhover, Volume 25.2) 

"On Not Losing You After All" (The Christian Century)

"Three Things You Need To Get Through a Plague" (Sweet Tree Review)

"Wilfredo Speaks" (Sweet Tree Review)

"Kabul Airport" (read by Heidi White for The Daily Poem podcast)

"Wherever You Go Someone Has Been There Already" (Juke Joint, Issue 14)

"Manifesto on the Lifting of a Lockdown" (Cultivating, Summer 2021)

"Vibrant Photos That Show What The Middle East Is Really Like" (The Dillydoun Review, Issue 5)

"The Lizard King" (ellipsis...literature and art, Vol. 57)
"At Last I Have It Out With France" (ellipsis...literature and art, Vol. 57)

"Campus East" (Sheila-Na-Gig Online)
"Kukla Kebap" (Sheila-Na-Gig Online)

"Alterations" (The Mark Literary Review, June 2021)

"The Mandalina Tree" (Bracken, Issue VIII)

"Sleet" (The Christian Century, 01 March 2021) 

"Aşure (Noah’s Pudding)" (Chestnut Review, Winter 2021)


2020

"Free Pears" (Blue Earth Review, Issue 25)

"Astronauts in Denmark" (Beloit Poetry Journal, Vol. 70 No. 2)

"Sassafras" (Cultivating, Autumn 2020)

"Belen Köy" (Red Rock Review, Issue 45) 

"Annie" (Silk + Smoke, Issue 2) 

"An Ode to Everything" (The Sunlight Press, 29 September 2020)

"Flipper" (8 Poems, August 2020)

"On The Cusp of the Pandemic" (The Christian Century, 01 June 2020) 

"The Club of Imaginary Friends" (The Mark Literary Review, May 2020)

"Look" (Dust Poetry, 23 March 2020)

"The Multi-Faceted Gem of Forgiveness Catches the Light" (Fathom Mag, 27 January 2020)


2019

"Angry Dads" (Cultivating, 10 December 2019)

"Flourish: A Spencerian Definition" (Cultivating, 22 June 2019)

"What Is Meant By The Land" (Foundling House, 13 May 2019)

"Hotel Window" (The Ekphrastic Review, 15 February 2019)


2018

"Furnace Backstory" (Utmost Christian Poetry Contest, 2018)


2017

"Autobiography of the World" (The Corral Literary Journal, 2017)


2015

"We Should Talk More About The Country" (Utmost Christian Poetry Contest, 2015)


2013

"The Cave" (Utmost Christian Poetry Contest, 2013)

"Dénouement" (Dappled Things, Vol. 8 Issue 4)
"Orders For Emissaries" (Dappled Things, Vol. 8 Issue 4)

"Fourteen Reasons Not To Jump" (Ruminate Magazine, Issue 29)

"Call To Arms" (Grey Sparrow Journal, Fall 2013)
"In Confidence" (Grey Sparrow Journal, Fall 2013)
"What Hannah Said" (Grey Sparrow Journal, Fall 2013)


2012

"When This Is Over" (Emerge Literary Journal, Issue 3)

"Resurrection" (Time of Singing, 2012)

"Sonnets For The Not-Dead Yet" (The Mayo Review, Spring 2012)

"Mulberry Gap" (Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prizes, 2012)
"From Outside" (Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prizes, 2012)

"Nevertheless Come Autumn" (The Montucky Review, 30 March 2012)

"Superlative" (Quantum Poetry Magazine, 20 March 2012)

"About-Face" (The Adroit Journal, Issue Four)

Bryana's full-length poetry collection of juvenilia (Having Decided To Stay, 2012) is available here.


2011

"Fairy-Tale" (The Boston Literary Magazine, Winter 2011)


Other Publications

"The Story of Dishestown" (Cultivating, Spring 2021)
"If We Have Understood Noble Things" (Commonplace Quarterly, Vol. 3 Issue 1)
"God In Our Goodbyes" (Cultivating, Winter 2020)
"My Favorite Day" (Cultivating, Autumn 2020)
"Comedy and Tragedy in the Not-Right World" (Cultivating, Summer 2020)
"Joy Too Can Be An Act Of Resistance" (Cultivating, Spring 2020)
"Letting Go of Righteousness" (Cultivating, Autumn 2019)
"Why We Need Dismal Poems About Death and Maggots" (Cultivating, Spring 2019)
"Interview With Bryana Joy" (Cultivating, Spring 2019)
"The Stag Who Lived Forever" (Story Warren, 25 April 2014)
"The War From Where We Are" (Story Warren, 13 May 2013)