Adam Oyster-Sands is a high school Language Arts teacher and poet. After years of writing cringey punk songs, he began writing poetry with his students as a practice on craft and voice. Adam’s writing left the confines of the classroom when he had two poems recognized in the Oregon Poetry Association’s 2020 Fall Contest. His first poetry chapbook, “don’t call us punk because we hate that,” was then released in 2024 through Steel Toe Books. Over the years a number of his poems have been published by various literary journals and collections such as Picture Frame Press, The Dewdrop, and Cathexis Northwest Press. Adam can often be found with his partner Morgan running through forests or walking their dogs around their neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. 

*Photo by Morgan Oyster-Sands