Nino McQuown
(they/he) is a trans and transdisciplinary artist from Baltimore, Maryland, where they put on puppet shows, teach gardening, and write. They’ve published poems, essays, and comics with Foglifter, Electric Literature, Barrelhouse, SAND, and many others. They were one of Foglifter‘s 2026 Pushcart nominees in creative nonfiction for “New Crush.” their essay on new parenthood, poly, and why we call our lovers baby.
Their book-length epic, Cruise Ship, is forthcoming in 2027 with Word Works Press.
Queers at the End of the World
Queers at the End of the World is nerdy queer and trans folks prepping for the apocalypse the only way we know how: by podcasting about books, games, shows, movies and comics. Join us twice a month as we dig up all those queers they buried.
LISTENPublications and Performances
Poem: “Our Totality”
I’ve got to admit I’ve come
to hate my neighbors
Two Poems: “Superbowl Sunday and the Dove Did Not Come Down” and “I Want the Ghost of Mary Oliver to Come and Slash My Tires”
Is this Animal Soft?
Essay: “New Crush”
An Essay on new parenthood and polyamory and why we call our lovers baby, in Foglifter 10.2 page 49
Poem: “Did You Know Cow Tongues Are Also Rough, You Said.”
Poem on Rough Tongues in Foglifter 10.2 page 148
Essay: One from the Vaults
An Essay on Eddie, fatness, and grief in Absolute Pleasure: Queer Perspectives on Rocky Horror from Feminist Press
Poem: “Horse of Joy”
Joy Feeds us to the Lions
Poem: “Horse of Seasons”
there were times in your life where you felt the whole mouth
of it open against you
Horse of Interdependence
I’m not the only one who’ll keep you up at night.
Essay: Save the World, Abort the Future: ‘Terminator’ and Trans Bodies After Roe v. Wade
An Essay on Sarah Connor, Trans Bodies, Abortion, Apocalypse, and the Politics of the Ultrasound
Essay: White Futurism no Longer Holds Center Stage in HBO’S “Station Eleven”
An Essay on the Uneven Distribution of Apocalypse
Chicken Killing
A comic on coming out and killing chickens, in Barrelhouse Magazine
The Creaky Ship
Poem
Rabbit Catastrophe Review #0014
Anaphylactic Shock
Poem
in Hotel Amerika 16:1
On the Death of the Director
Poem
Cimarron Review 197
Drifting Fork
Death, digestion, and dad jokes: a puppet show performed at the Boston Democracy Center
The Story of the Orca’s Silver Tongue
Letterpress poetry zine with handcut illustrations
Nominated for Best Lit Zine
Peak Bloom
A performative spring ritual bridging social media and dirt. Part of the earth, that is sufficient
Artifact of its own Evaporation: Jeffrey Schultz’s Civil Twilight
A review essay at the Kenyon Review Online