Beginnings of things are often hazy for me, but here’s what I remember: about three years ago, I got lunch with Robert at Northside Grill in Ann Arbor. It was at this lunch where he shared with me his ideas for Chrysalism. Basically, he envisioned a journal that would spotlight up-and-coming writers’ work and play a small part in pushing back against capital-P Poetry where pay-to-play models, wildly lengthy wait times after submitting, and stock rejection letters are all too common. Among other things, he wanted this journal to offer personalized feedback to all submitters and find ways to foster in-person and virtual community around poetry.

Well, probably 50 phone calls, dozens of Zooms, and months’ worth of reading and writing personalized feedback letters later—not to mention figuring out how to become a nonprofit, applying for grants, creating a training protocol and application process for student interns, building a website—we’re happy to have the chance to show you our inaugural issue, Issue 0. We think the poems and poets here speak for themselves, and we’d like to invite you to dive in.

Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has supported Chrysalism so far, whether you shared your work at the Aretha Jazz Café’s Real Poems Reading People series, read or submitted for our inaugural issue, or taught us to love poetry in the first place. A BIG thank you to the Chrysalism past and present interns who helped bring this issue to fruition—Adeline, Alex, Alexis, Ava, Brendan, Cam, Devin, Emmett, Jeremy, Kateri, Lana, Makenna, Rich, and Sam. I am wholly confident that this wouldn’t have happened without your help. Thank you for believing in this journal; we’re excited with where it’s at now, and we’re at least as excited for what’s to come.

Happy reading!

Matt Del Busto

Chrysalism Editor-in-Chief

October 2025