Diannely Antigua

Remaking a Life

Poetry & Personal Sanctuaries




Note: Sensitive topics including mental health, abuse and domestic violence are addressed.

From the age of nine to nineteen, Diannely (she/her) spent the majority of her time in a church sanctuary. Services were held Wednesday and Friday nights, and then Sunday mornings with the occasional fellowship or Bible study in the evenings. As if three days weren’t enough, she also went to middle school and high school at the church, Monday through Friday. Sometimes even Saturdays were spent at the church—cleaning or helping prep for Sunday after-service meals. That sanctuary alone encompassed her entire existence. She prayed, worshiped, sang, cried, learned geometry, ate Doritos, pined over a crush—all in that room. But what had once seemed like a safe haven from the horrors of the world became the horror itself. How was Diannelly to find sanctuary outside of this once supposed sanctuary? This CreativeMornings talk will focus on her journey of making and remaking these personal sanctuaries. Part storytelling, part poetry reading, she hopes to leave listeners with a glimpse into the world of ongoing survivorhood.



Diannely Antigua is a Dominican American poet and educator, born and raised in Massachusetts. Her debut collection, Ugly Music (YesYes Books, 2019), won the Pamet River Prize and a Whiting Award. Her second poetry collection is forthcoming with Copper Canyon Press, 2024. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and her poems can be found in the Best of the Net Anthology, Poem-a-Day, Poetry Magazine, The American Poetry Review, Washington Square Review, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. She resides in Portsmouth, NH, where she is the Poet Laureate and host of the podcast Bread & Poetry.

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