Skanky Possum was a twice-a-year poetry journal and small book-publishing imprint begun in Austin, Texas and associated with a long-running, home-based poetry reading series. Curated by Hoa Nguyen and her husband, Dale Smith, the imprint published American poetry, featuring both well known names and up-and-coming poets. Discussing small poetry journals, Linh Dinh observes, "Although most of these are ephemeral, appearing for only a few issues, with tiny circulations, their existence invigorates American literature." Skanky Possum is among the oldest.
This 11 issue staple-bound magazine published several poems selected for The Best American Poetry series., including four of the 75 poems in the 2002 edition, selected by Robert Creeley. "In poetry circles, their magazine is highly regarded," Crispin Jessa writes in Bookslut, "Skanky Possum has printed the works of Amiri Baraka and Tom Clark." . Poems by Clayton Eshleman, Robert Kelly, Linh Dinh, Eileen Myles, Kenward Elmslie, Rachel Loden, Alice Notley, Anselm Hollo and Diane di Prima have also appeared.
The magazine's first issue ran in the fall of 1998. The annual circulation of the magazine was 300 to 500 copies. Smith and Nguyen also published several poetry books under the Skanky Possum imprint including titles by Tom Clark & Anne Waldman, Kristin Prevallet and Sotere Torregian
The editors of Skanky Possum continue to run a reading series in their new home in Toronto.
Read more about Skanky Possum: Trivia