Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela’s writing has been recognized by The Leeway Foundation, Hedgebrook and others, and, among other places, has been published in Make/shift, As Us Journal, The Rust Belt Rising, APIARY, Aster(ix) and Big Bell. She is the founder of Thread Makes Blanket press, which recently released Dismantle, an anthology of writing from VONA writers, for which she also served as an editor. As part of her teaching at the Community College of Philadelphia, she instructs for-credit classes inside Philadelphia jails. “Pretend Nice, But Terrible” is a poem is about visiting a friend of hers in Kansas who is serving a 17 and 1/2 year sentence for a text message to a minor.
