Hi, hello! I'm Tova. I'm a poet & producer based in Brooklyn, & for the past five years I've orchestrated the programs at The Poetry Society of New York! I started there as an Event Production Intern in 2021 & am now Chief Programs Officer & Director of Operations. Highlights include a free poetry festival on Governors Island that fifteen thousand people take a ferry to get to, a residential writing retreat in the Catskills with a work study track, & workshops that cost nothing to attend. My debut chapbook, lilac on the damned's breath, is out from Bottlecap Press.

Photo by Rachel Keane

"Kick-ass resume!" - Nick Buffon, Poets House

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"Would make a really awesome host of a kids' show." - Poetry Camp attendee, 2026

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"The Willy Wonka of the poetry world!" - NYC PoFest participant, 2025

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"Kick-ass resume!" - Nick Buffon, Poets House 〰️ "Would make a really awesome host of a kids' show." - Poetry Camp attendee, 2026 〰️ "The Willy Wonka of the poetry world!" - NYC PoFest participant, 2025 〰️

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the lilacs

lilac on the damned’s breath

"Greene's [poetry] is extraordinary. They can do the dramatic monologue that mines bravura effects and the power of paradox, and they can go beyond that to poems that are haunting, dialogic and create suggestiveness rather than relying on the power of kinetic language. Experiment in poetry can often be a vernacular going back to Max Jacob via Krazy Kat: Greene [transcends] that and [creates] really new art: inversions, reversals, interrogations of syntax that [have] urgency and authenticity."​

D. Nurkse, Author of A Country of Strangers: New and Selected Poems

  • before my father passed away in 2017, he planted four lilac bushes on the hill outside of my childhood home: one for him, one for my mom, one for my sister, & one for me. the ground in that part of new york is rocky & dry; simply put, they should not have taken to the land. by sheer force of an aries’ will, a miracle, or perhaps just a deep love for walt whitman, they’re still blooming every spring.

    my debut poetry chapbook lilac on the damned’s breath is a love letter to loss; to impermanence; to forgiveness (even in the face of abandonment). like the lilacs, it seems impossible—on some days it is—but i promise a new spring will always come.

  • this chapbook contains mentions of death, abuse, sexual assault, & bodily harm. lilac on the damned’s breath is poetically fictionalized & inspired by works of poetic fiction. as such, it cannot be taken as fact in any way, shape, or form. re: the cliche disclaimer, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events in this chapbook is purely coincidental. it is a cathartic reflection of my perspective, my opinions: nothing more.

  • lilac on the damned’s breath is available on bottlecap press’ website: https://bottlecap.press/products/lilac

About Me

Tova Greene (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based producer and poet-person. As Chief Programs Officer and Director of Operations at The Poetry Society of New York, they build immersive poetry wonderlands—including The New York City Poetry Festival and Poetry Camp—that prioritize collaboration and artistic experimentation. Described by one participant as “the Willy Wonka of the poetry world,” their events have earned acclaim from The New York Times, NPR, and Observer. Tova is an Editorial Director at Milk Press, the author of lilac on the damned's breath (Bottlecap Press, 2022), and co-editor of I FEEL NOTHING LIKE GOOD: Poets Against Genocide (Taylor & Co Books + Radix Co-op, 2026) with Andrew Colarusso, which raised over $5,000 for relief organizations. Their writing appears in Foglifter Press, Midway Journal (Best of the Net nominee), INKWELL, and elsewhere. They’ve taught at Lincoln Center’s Curriculum for Change Conference and perform live typewriter poetry for clients like The Plaza Hotel and Bumble. They are probably currently drinking coffee and discussing reality TV with their two cats.

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