Recently, I heard Arielle Hebert on the podcast Poetry Off The Shelf (Episode: Hereafter Parties). Her conversation with host Helena de Groot captured my imagination–I knew within the first few minutes that I had to read Bottom Feeders.
These poems transport us to Sarasota, FL in the late 2000s—winter camp for the Ringling Bros. Circus, a snow-bird town rich in vacant mansions and cheap (legally prescribed) drugs. Hebert has a gift for narrative and her verse doesn't have a lazy line in it. I underlined so many passages when I started reading Bottom Feeders, I had to force myself to show restraint.
In describing her debut collection, Hebert wrote to us, “...Bottom Feeders is about coming of age and coming out as queer in Florida during the height of the opioid epidemic. It’s about young love and heartbreak, addiction and recovery, about leaving home and finding home. It’s a love letter to messy girlhood and to Florida—in all its complexities.”
Not only is each poem crafted superbly, but Hebert manages to have each build on the next—a dazzling feat in a poetry collection. Like a novel or film, the setting, characters, and plot develop at a satisfying pace—her descriptions are cinematic, metaphors stunning. She makes it look easy; how bright the language moves from one stanza to the next.
The book's title poem, "Bottom Feeder" was selected by Ada Limón as the winner of the 2019 North Carolina State Poetry Contest, and the collection was a finalist for the St. Lawrence Book Award in 2024. You can sample several of Hebert's poems from Bottom Feeder online in the literary journal The Common, where they appeared as the May 2026 feature.
We could not be more excited to have Hebert join us on The Poetry Shop to discuss some of her favorite books and poetic influences.
Welcome to the Poetry Shop 5, Arielle Hebert! We always start this column by asking: who was your "gateway poet," the poet whose first book or poem made you want to write?
My middle school English teacher recommended Anne Sexton after reading some of my poems I had stuffed into the back of my homework notebook. My parents took me to Barnes & Noble and bought me The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton. I remember leaving the store with the tome tucked in my arms; it was huge compared to most books on my shelves or that I checked out from the library. I dogeared and underlined the crap out of it those first few years. I continued to pick my way through The Collected Poems in high school, marking up the pages with notes and hearts. I still have the same copy from my young life, and though some of the marginalia is absolutely cringe, I love flipping through it and encountering my old selves there, even as a new version of me finds more to admire in the poems.
Sexton’s poems were accessible to me, welcoming the reader into her state of mind and her feelings, while much of the other poetry I read in school seemed to require deciphering or to hold the reader at arm’s length. I loved the personal nature of her poems—she put so much of herself on the page. She gave me the courage and the permission to write myself into my poems, to say the hard things. I was first drawn to poetry for the beauty of language, but I fell in love with poetry for the ways in which it helped me understand the world, to understand and express myself.
Which poetry book are you currently reading?
I was big into Greek mythology as a kid. I knew the names of all the gods and goddesses and their specialties. I have always loved movies, shows, and books that featured the ancient world and its stories, and I love a retelling or reimagining. Maria Zoccola’s Helen of Troy: 1993 is an incredible reimagining of Helen as a Tennessee housewife. Zoccola breathes such life and love into Helen, complicating her and humanizing her for the modern era as she goes to kids’ parties at Chuck-E-Cheese, battles dial-up internet, and escapes the boredom of small-town life by having an affair. There’s a sonnet crown braided through the book that acts as a Greek chorus that blew my mind wide open.
Much of my recent work is rooted in nature and finding hope in the Anthropocene. I pick up the Queer Nature: A Poetry Anthology on my lunch break or read a few poems first thing in the morning or before I go to bed. It’s an inclusive chorus of queer voices that celebrate the natural, more-than-human world, a world that has so much to teach us, if we would only take the time to pay attention.
Is there a book on the craft of writing that you recommend to poets?
I love craft books and poetry prompts. In an undergraduate poetry workshop, my professor assigned The Poet’s Companion, co-authored by Dorianne Laux and Kim Addonizio, which continues to be a book I recommend to poets, especially beginners, and which lives on my desk like a talisman. Dorianne’s new craft book is Finger Exercises for Poets. In the introduction, Dorianne talks about how musicians play scales and arpeggios and how artists make sketches or doodles. In that same spirit, Finger Exercises for Poets seeks to inspire writers to use simple or basic exercises to keep their writing skills honed, to make room for careful observation, play, and messy writing. Dorianne was my thesis advisor during the MFA at North Carolina State University, and we’ve continued to write together in online writing groups over the last 10+ years. It is a true gift to have her as a mentor, and these craft books are treasures of her writing advice and wisdom.
Who is a new voice in poetry that we need to check out–someone with a debut book or recent release?
It’s impossible to choose just one! My dear friend Chelsea Krieg’s debut poetry collection Everything Is Water won the TRP Southern Poetry Breakthrough Prize and was published earlier this year. It’s a tribute to caregiving, motherhood, and the natural world, and the poems are as beautiful as they are fierce. Encounters for the Living and the Dead by Jameela F. Dallis is a stunning debut collection and a master class in ekphrasis, with poems about ancestors, lost loves and desire, and oh my gosh, oysters.
Finally, what’s a poetry book that others may not know about but deserves a shout out?
The Opposite of Cruelty by Steven Leyva and Python with a Dog Inside It by Max McDonough. All of It Singing by Linda Gregg. All of It Singing by Linda Gregg is the book I read when I want to get “into the zone” or headspace to write or edit my own poems. Her finely chiseled lines and images are the kind that stick with you long after you finish reading.
About Arielle Hebert
Arielle Hebert is a queer poet based in North Carolina with roots in Florida and Louisiana. She is the author of Bottom Feeders (Black Lawrence Press). Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and have appeared in Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series, Poetry Daily, Best New Poets, and others. Arielle is the 2025-2026 fellow at Hellbender Gathering of Poets, an annual writing conference celebrating poetry, environmental science, and community to bring about a joyful rising in a climate-changed world. She is the Director of Operations and Marketing at Blair, a nonprofit publisher focused on emerging and diverse writers. Arielle believes in ghosts and magic. Find her online at ariellehebert.com and on instagram @arielle__hebert.
Books referenced in this article.
Bottom Feeders (Black Lawrence Press) by Arielle Hebert
The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton (Ecco Press) by Anne Sexton
Helen of Troy: 1993 (Scribner Book Company) by Maria Zoccola
Queer Nature: A Poetry Anthology (Autumn House Press) edited by Michael Walsh
The Poet’s Companion (W. W. Norton & Company) co-authored by Dorianne Laux and Kim Addonizio
Finger Exercises for Poets (W. W. Norton & Company)by Dorianne Laux
Everything Is Water (TRP: The University Press of SHSU) by Chelsea Krieg
Encounters for the Living and the Dead (River River Books) by Jameela F. Dallis
The Opposite of Cruelty (Blair) by Steven Leyva
Python with a Dog Inside It (Black Lawrence Press) by Max McDonough
All of It Singing (Graywolf Press) by Linda Gregg
Photo Credit: Arielle Hebert by Scott Krier
