Poet Aaron Smith on creating ‘Beautiful People’ with the late Maureen Seaton

To call the 2023 passing of award-winning lesbian poet, writer, and educator Maureen Seaton an immeasurable loss is no exaggeration. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, including two Lambda Literary Awards, Pushcart Prizes, and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, among others, Seaton, who died of cancer at age 75, also made a name for herself via her collaborations with other poets, most notably Denise Duhamel.

The posthumously published “Beautiful People”/“Tilt” (Bridwell Press) contains two books of collaborative poetry. “Tilt,” Seaton’s final collaboration with Duhamel, and “Beautiful People,” a collaboration with gay poet Aaron Smith. A fantastic and exhilarating poetry collection, it ranks among the best books of the year. In a recent interview, Smith discussed his expe