Verselandia! Youth Poetry Slam Championship 2026

Julia Gaskill (she/her) is a poet and organizer hailing from Portland, OR. She has competed multiple times on national spoken word stages and toured with her poetry across North America. Her work has been published through FreezeRay Poetry, Pile Press, Vagabond City Lit, and more, as well as in several anthologies. Her debut poetry collection, weirdo, was published with Game Over Books Press in 2022. Julia runs the monthly poetry mic series Slamlandia, and she is a co-creator and the lead organizer of the Bigfoot Poetry Festival (taking place in downtown Portland for its fifth time this June). She was elected to the board of the Oregon Poetry Association in 2024, and she was a 2025 Carolyn Moore Writers House resident. When not writing poetry or organizing events, Julia can be found binging the latest must-watch TV, exploring the Pacific Northwest with her husband, or walking your dog.