bio.
|
short version:
Mateer is the award-winning. bestselling author of multiple poetry books including mythology-inspired Aphrodite Made Me Do It and sapphic cult favorite Honeybee. She writes about love and everything else. slightly longer version: 
[buzzfeed] [popsugar] [school library journal] [buzzfeed] [cnn]
Trista Mateer is a queer poet and artist from Westminster, Maryland. Before she was an author, she was a waitress in a bar, writing poetry on scraps of receipts. Her work revolves around connection, humor, emotional honesty, and a touch of the unconventional. First gaining traction in the modern poetry scene in 2013 with her self-titled Tumblr blog, Mateer wrote dozens of viral poems, amassing thousands of readers, and hand-making her own chapbooks. Her early work appeared in places like Rising Phoenix Review and Eunoia Review, among others. She also worked as a a contributing editor at Words Dance Literary Magazine & Blog. In 2015, with no agent and no publisher, Mateer won the Goodreads Choice Award for poetry with her self-published collection, The Dogs I Have Kissed--poems on bad dates and intimacy issues. She then teamed up with indie poetry publisher Central Avenue to re-release her debut collection Honeybee in 2018. "Gut truths and gin-clear imagery, Trista Mateer reminds us of all those places left unexplored by language." -Foreword Reviews In 2019, she followed up with the illustrated full-color collection, Aphrodite Made Me Do It, which went on to be voted one of the best poetry books of that year by readers on Goodreads. For her young adult poetry debut in 2020, Mateer went on to work with Random House Children's to release When the Stars Wrote Back. "[When the Stars Wrote Back] simultaneously embodies tough wit and vulnerability." -Kirkus Still a champion of self-publishing, Mateer then independently released a poetry collection on grief and loneliness called girl, isolated in 2021, written during the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Continuing the Myth & Magick series of feminist greek mythology retellings, Artemis Made Me Do It hit shelves September 6, 2022. And Persephone Made Me Do It followed September 12th 2023. Trista Mateer's decade retrospective collection, I Swear Somewhere This Works: Selected Poems 2013-2023, released in June 2023 with a whimsical cover by celebrated artist Arch Budzar. It was selected as a 2023 Foreword INDIES winner and received a 2024 Readers' Favorite gold. "A moving time capsule of Mateer's most beautiful work." -Catarine Hancock, author of Shades of Lovers "Mateer's works are an instruction guide for finding oneself." -Ari B. Cofer, author of Unfold "This is what Mateer's work does to its readers--validates and comforts in one fell swoop." -Caitlin Conlon, author of The Surrender Theory On September 24th, Small Ghost released. A full length collection based on Mateer's 2015 chapbook of the same name, exploring mental health issues + neurodivergence through the metaphor of a haunting. “Trista Mateer is a gifted poet who deeply understands the complexities of the human experience and isn’t afraid to explore every aspect of it.” – Kevin T. Norman, Book Content Creator Trista Mateer has been a full-time poet since 2015. She is currently working on her Fall 2025 release with Central Avenue, a sapphic novel in verse yet to be announced. For a media kit, click here. |
|
|