Now is the Time of Monsters: A Community Storytelling Collection was published on June 20, 2025, bringing together voices that confront uncertainty, fear, and resistance through poetry and prose. The anthology asks a central question, “Is it fear that creates the monsters, or the monsters that create the fear?” The pieces live in that tension, bearing witness to the realities of our time while challenging readers to sit with discomfort and complexity.
I contributed a piece titled “The Weight of Now” and had the opportunity to read it aloud at the Utah Arts Festival during the anthology’s launch event on Saturday. Sharing this work from the festival stage, in front of a live audience, was both grounding and transformative.
About the Anthology
Now is the Time of Monsters is a community storytelling collection shaped by urgency. The writing interrogates what it means to live, love, and resist during moments of cultural, political, and emotional fracture. Each piece approaches the idea of monstrosity differently, sometimes literal, sometimes metaphorical, and often uncomfortably close to reality.
Rather than offering easy answers, the anthology invites readers to sit inside the questions. It is a collection that witnesses and explores survival without simplifying the experiences it shares.
The Weight of Now
My contribution, “The Weight of Now,” engages with the current political climate through a dark and deliberate lens. It is a free verse poem that wrestles with power, fear, and endurance, drawing on imagery that reflects instability and collapse.
This poem came to me during a difficult time in my life and it is raw and relatable. It is a poem meant to be experienced rather than summarized, one that asks for emotional attention rather than explanation. Being included in this anthology affirmed my interest in work that confronts hard truths while still allowing space for interpretation.
Reading at the Utah Arts Festival
Reading my work on stage at the Utah Arts Festival was a defining moment in this project. Festivals are loud, busy, and alive with movement, yet during the reading, everything narrowed into a shared moment of listening. Standing on that stage and offering words shaped by fear, resistance, and resilience connected the poem to a broader community context.
Live readings add a different dimension to written work. They require presence, vulnerability, and trust in the audience. That experience reinforced the power of poetry not only on the page, but in collective space.
Why This Project Matters
Now is the Time of Monsters represents the kind of creative work that feels necessary. It does not look away from what is difficult, and it does not ask readers to remain comfortable. Instead, it creates space to acknowledge what is happening and to consider how storytelling itself can be a form of advocacy.
For me, this anthology reflects my ongoing commitment to writing that responds to the present moment with honesty and intention, whether on the page or spoken aloud.
Interested in exploring the anthology? Find a free copy of the book here.
xoxo,
Michaela Rae
