Celebrate National Poetry Month at Next Stage with an evening of poetry, conversation, and dancing! Join poet Diana Whitney for the release of her new book, Girl Trouble, which readers are calling “unstoppable” and “deeply subversive.”

Girl Trouble excavates the terrain of female adolescence in a brazen journey through rape culture from the 1980s to the #MeToo era. Whitney’s earthy poems spill secrets, make trouble, and reckon with stories of desire and harm while exploring the agency and oppression of women and girls. Deeply rooted in the natural world, the collection grieves the planet’s degradation even as it celebrates queerness and seeks healing for the next generation. By the end, a chorus of voices rises to a full-throated roar, revealing the power and release of truth-telling. This is a book for survivors and advocates, for mothers and daughters, and for anyone moving through trauma with resilience.

Whitney is a queer writer and educator who believes fiercely in the power of poetry to connect us to ourselves and 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 previous 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.

Whitney will be in conversation with poet Eve Alexandra, whose prize-winning collection None of Us in White was released in 2025.

Snacks will be provided, a cash bar will be available, and books will be for sale from Everyone’s Books.