Marissa Forbes (she/her) is a Pushcart Prize nominated author, visual artist, and creative instructor. Her poetry books, Surviving Peter Pan (Beyond the Veil Press) and Brief & Bleeding Margins (World Stage Press) were published in 2023. Other published poems and short fiction stories can be read on marissaforbes.com and @word_nerd_ris. She is the Managing Editor for Twenty Bellows, a CO indie press, the Development Coordinator for Civic Center Conservancy, and teaches poetry for the Denver Chapter of Community Literature Initiative’s 10 month Poetry for Publication program. Marissa was the 2024 Winter Resident with Tiny Spoon, has curated poetry activations with Aurora History Museum and the Center for Colorado Women’s History, coordinated the second annual Creative Colorado Writer’s Retreat held at Mint & Serif in 2024, and was named the 2025 Poet Laureate for 40 West Arts District in Lakewood CO.  Forbes has resided all over the country but now lives a colorful life in Denver with her two children, where she hones her personal mission to amplify art and community in Colorado.

IG @word_nerd_ris

Marissa's Website

40 West Arts District

Twenty Bellows