Indelible Ink

     Poet, Zinester, Editor, Blogger; Stepfanie N. Barnes concentrates her written efforts towards reflecting her reality as an openly gay, African-American female.  She makes no apologies for who she is or the way she chooses to approach life.

     Born in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas on spring afternoon in 1983, Stepfanie spent the majority of her childhood on military bases in Germany and Georgia. It was during her family’s stay in Columbus, Georgia that she first began to write poetry.  Once she set her pencil in motion she knew she wouldn’t stop.

    In the almost two decades since that time her writing has grown to include personal narratives, short stories, and a few blogs.  Establishing her micro-press, Tattooed Tongue Press, she has been self-publishing and editing collective poetry chapbooks since mid-2007; most recently Define Yourself: The UnLabelled Papers.  She has written a few zines (examples: Celibacy Blues and I Once Dreamt I was Invincible), has a monthly updated poetry blog: Straight from the Pencil and a personal blog: The World According to Blue, and is currently working on the upcoming online fiction series, Kindred.

    Adding these endeavors to her life has not diminished the fact that poetry is her first love.  In 2007, Stepfanie self-published her first chapbook, Love Letters Scribble on a Concrete Wall  her second titled, A Citizen of Fists  was released in 2011.  It was during this time that she also began to be published by such literary magazines as Antithesis Common and Sinister Wisdom. 

    Flittering far from the edge of mainstream publication, Stepfanie prefers that Tattooed Tongue be a “one-woman machine” handling everything from proofreading, to design, and mailing.

    To date she and Tattooed Tongue Press has published 3 perzines, 2 poetry compilations, and 2 poetry chapbook.  Upcoming is I Once Believed I was Invincible II, an untitled full-length collection, and the pocket series: Vagabond Poets,