D.W. Baker (he/him) is a poet, editor, and critic living in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA with his family. His work often explores the themes and structures of place, bodies, belonging, and the end of the world. Previous professional experiences as an English/Reading Intervention teacher, as well as a touring and recording bassist, inform his approach to the materiality of language. His poetry appears in various journals, including Washington Square Review, Sundog Lit, ballast, Identity Theory, The Pierian, Voidspace Zine, The Hooghly Review, Green Ink Poetry, Corporeal Lit, and Modern Haiku (read his poems here). He volunteers his time on the mastheads of several indie lit organizations in both reader and editor roles (see more here). He began publishing critical works in 2024 (collected here), and offered a workshop titled “The Mind of the Poem: Form, Rhyme, and Constraint” in February 2025 (details here).
Formal recognition of his work includes:
- 1st Place, with co-author Stephanie M. Holden, in the 2023 Sundog Lit collaboration contest, for the poem, “We Tried to Kill God Without Realizing That the Water Remembered Her Deeper Name”
- 1st Place, in the 2024 Poems for Persons of Interest 12 Hour Carol Contest, for the poem, “Alchemists’ Hymn”
- Ranked 8th, as part of the Cosmic Daffodil masthead, in the Chill Subs Community Favorites “25 Best Lit Mags of 2023”
- Finalist, tiny wren lit’s 2025 reading period, for the chapbook manuscript, Digging Someone Else’s Grave
- Nominated, Pushcart Prize 2026, with co-author nat raum, by Genrepunk Magazine, for the poem, “air”
- Nominated, Best of the Net 2026, with co-author nat raum, by Spark 2 Flame, for the poem, “fire”
- Nominated, Best of the Net 2026, by The Turning Leaf Journal, for the collage, “Matrilineal”
- Nominated, Best of the Net 2025, by Identity Theory, for the poem, “Meteorite”
- Nominated, Best of the Net 2025, by fifth wheel press, for the poem, “Signifier/Signature”
- Nominated, Best of the Net 2024, by Gastropoda Magazine, for the poem, “Plant Food”
Page last updated Oct 11, 2025
D.W. Baker, submerging poet 