Cold Thief Place
By Esther Lin
Welcome to SWWIM Every Day’s preview coverage of Miami Book Fair (MBF) 2025! We’ve been partnering with MBF since 2020 to bring you stimulating, inspiring work. From November 3 to 14, watch daily features on a selection of poets, just a glimpse of the incredible authors participating in this year’s MBF, the nation’s largest gathering of writers and readers of all ages. For more information about these and other authors, visit miamibookfaironline.com, follow @miamibookfair on Instagram and X, and join the conversation with #miamibookfair2025.
Esther Lin will read at the Miami Book Fair on Saturday, November 22, at 1:00 p.m. Location: Building 8, Third Floor, Room 8303.
Esther Lin was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and lived in the United States as an undocumented immigrant for 21 years. She is the author of Cold Thief Place, longlisted for the National Book Award, and The Ghost Wife, and she is co-editor of Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora (HarperCollins 2024). Her work has been included in Best New Poets 2022 and the 2023 Best of the Net anthology. Currently, she is a critic-at-large for Poetry Northwest and co-organizes the Undocupoets.
Join us for our last virtual writing workshop of the fall with a SWWIM editor! Get in touch with your creative energy, your “bruja,” your inner witch. We’ll explore the wonder, mystery, synchronicity, and enchantment of the creative process in our writing. Sign up for Mystics, Medicine, and Magic: A Yogic Journey to Poetry with Catherine Esposito Prescott on December 9. Broom optional.
12/11 / Poetry Reading and Conversation with visiting poet-in-residence Lesley Wheeler & local poet Haya Pomrenze / The BBar at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7-8:30 pm EST / Free
Are you looking for editorial feedback? SWWIM’s editors offer commentary on 3-6 pages of poetry. Submit here!
SWWIM Every Day accepts poetry translations for publication consideration. Please see swwim.org/submit for the full guidelines.
Are you a SWWIMmer with literary news to share (publication/feature/award/book/book review)? We’d love to shout out your accomplishments in our Weekly Spotlight! Please fill out this form with your news. (No DMs on any social media platforms, please.)
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and Bluesky for more updates—and visit our website to see past, present, and future readings & events.
**We do our best to preserve the integrity of each poem; however, due to programming limitations, some poems may read differently on a mobile phone and in certain browsers. For best viewing, use Chrome on a desktop/laptop.




Hi I've been really missing reading the poems since you changed the format. So from reading a new SWWIM poem to start my day I just dont...I like the idea of listening to the poem but would love to read it first.
Beautiful poem!