I create art
that defies complacency
& celebrates
messy miracles
“In the beginning, science tells us, the four fundamental forces of the universe were one—a single force encompassing all possible energies. Reading Topaz Winters’ poems, I am reminded of this fact, as her work, heritage and politics, intelligence and ardor fuse in an intensity both incandescent and compelling. Sparks fly, while a human hand reaches for another. Winters’ work is dazzling and deeply moving.”
Monica Youn
“The unflinchingly brilliant and reflective words of Topaz Winters will leave you breathless and profoundly understood.” — Blythe Baird
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“The unflinchingly brilliant and reflective words of Topaz Winters will leave you breathless and profoundly understood.” — Blythe Baird |
free & infrequent love letters
I am a writer, artist, editor, performer, & author of So, Stranger (Button Poetry 2022, winner of the Button Poetry Short Form Contest & selected as a LitBowl Best Poetry Book of 2022) & Portrait of My Body as a Crime I’m Still Committing (Button Poetry 2019 & 2024, finalist in the Broken River & Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prizes). I serve as editor-in-chief of Half Mystic Press, an independent, international, & interdisciplinary publishing project, & as co-editor of Kopi Break, a journal of new Singapore poetry.
My poetry, fiction, & nonfiction have been published by the American Poetry Review, Poetry Northwest, & Poets.org, profiled in Vogue, The Straits Times, & The Business Times, & performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Centre for Fiction, & the Singapore Writers Festival. I am the recipient of fellowships from Sundress Publications, the National YoungArts Foundation, & Unearth Writing Retreats. In 2017 I gave the TEDx talk Healing Is a Verb. I’m the writer & star of the 2017 short film SUPERNOVA (recipient of awards from the Newark International, Across Asia Youth, Laurie Nelson, My Rode Reel, Singapore International Student, & CINE Golden Eagle Film Festivals), & from 2015 to 2022 I wrote the annual column Silver-Tipped Swallow for Half Mystic Journal.
I hold a B.A. in English with certificates in Creative Writing, Visual Art, & Italian from Princeton University. I live between New York & Singapore with a white dog named Hachii & a black cat named Volta.
