Ollie Schminkey is a non-binary transgender poet/musician/artist living in St. Paul, MN. They have spent the past decade coaching, mentoring, teaching classes, and running workshops for poets. They facilitate, direct, and host many organizations, including a weekly writing workshop called Well-Placed Commas, which serves primarily queer and trans writers. Their work has been featured everywhere from THEM to Upworthy, and they’ve performed poems in 19 states, with their work garnering over 3 million views on YouTube. They are the author of four chapbooks and two full-length collections: Where I Dry the Flowers (Button Poetry, 2024) and Dead Dad Jokes (Button Poetry, 2021), which was shortlisted for both the Midwest Independent Publishers Association and the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize. They were the winner of the 2019 Button Poetry Video contest, and they currently teach poetry courses through Writers.com. They are the founder and director of Midwest Poetry Mash-Up, a national slam poetry tournament that just completed a successful second year. When they’re not writing and performing poetry, they spend their time making creepy+cute pottery under the name Sick Kitty Ceramics. You can find them touring nationally, making music, or playing with their cat Pete, who is always trying to eat things he shouldn’t.