The Chaos Section Poetry Project is an independent poetry press and editorial project based in Austin, Texas. It grew out of The Chaos Section, a long-running opinion site founded in 2012, and was created as a way to expand that work into poetry—bringing the same attention to lived experience, civic life, and cultural pressure into a different form.
Rather than publishing individual poems on a rolling basis, the project focuses on curated collections. Each chapbook is built around a central theme and shaped through editorial collaboration, with an emphasis on clarity, craft, and emotional honesty.
Our first collection, Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age, gathered voices responding to political pressure, resistance, and the erosion of democratic norms. Our second collection, What We Hold On To: Poems of Coping, Connection, and Carrying On, turns inward, exploring how people endure, adapt, and remain connected in uncertain times.
All chapbooks are released free to read on the site, with free high-quality digital downloads available. Print editions are offered for readers who want a physical copy.
We welcome a wide range of poetic approaches—free verse, formal, experimental, personal, political… what matters most is care for language, attention to form, and, most importantly, a willingness to engage honestly with the world as it is.
For current submission calls and guidelines, please visit our submissions page.
Masthead
Rachel Armes-McLaughlin
Co-Editor
Rachel Armes-McLaughlin has written poetry for nearly 25 years. Her work is published in The Chaos Section Poetry Project, where she currently assists as co-editor; in venues such as Loblolly Press, Middle Mouse Press, and Medicine and Meaning; in a Central Arkansas Library System anthology; and elsewhere, with one poem nominated for Best of the Net and another nominated for a 2025 Pushcart Prize. Rachel lives in the very red state of Arkansas with her husband, Jack; daughter, Isabelle; and four cats. You can find her on BlueSky at @mother-poet.bsky.social.
Nick Allison
Co-Editor
Nick Allison is a former Army infantryman, college dropout, and writer based in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Tracy, their two children, and their dog, Lily. His poems and essays have appeared in The Shore, Mobius, HuffPost, CounterPunch, The Chaos Section, and elsewhere, including his personal site, The Truth About Tigers, which has little to nothing to do with actual tigers. Also, he secretly enjoys writing his own bio in the third person. Probably because it makes him feel more important than he actually is.
Bonner Fowles
Cover Artist
Bonner Fowles is an Austin-born artist based in Central Texas. He works with multiple mediums, with a strong focus on drawing and both oil and acrylic painting.
The Chaos Section Poetry Project 